Matthew 7:7-11
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!
What was your father like? Did he teach you to play baseball? If you are a girl, did he play Barbies with you? Maybe he wasn’t in your life at all. Maybe he was like my dad. He worked hard and loved us kids but when he came home from work, he sat down at the dinner table and ate his supper, then went to his recliner, read the paper and watched the news. After this he watched a couple of his favorite television shows and then hit the bath and got in bed. It was the same routine for as long as I can remember. He was an “equal opportunity ignorer!” He never came to one of my football games or school activities and never got too involved in my life but I know he did love me and my brothers.
All of us had different kinds of experiences with our fathers. My father’s older brother burned his leg very badly when he was very young and had to have extensive medical care for years. Therefore, my dad, the youngest sibling was left to fend for himself without much parenting from his mother or father. When he became a father, he didn’t have any training on the matter. Chances are, your father fathered you just like he was fathered by his father. The cycle just continues and perpetuates itself, good or bad.
But God is not like our earthly fathers. God is the PERFECT father. It is hard for so many people to relate to Him in that way because of the abuse or neglect they suffered at the hands of their earthly father. Many Believers can believe good things for others but not for themselves because they feel such a sense of worthlessness and inferiority. The Bible tells us repeatedly that Jesus has redeemed us and brought us back into a relationship with God, our Father. We are no longer strangers to Him but we are His children. We are heirs to everything that is His, everything that is good, everything that is perfect!
How do you get out of the mindset of inferiority and unworthiness?
Romans 12:2 (KJV)
2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
The only way it can be done is by getting into the Word of God! You have to get the Word of God into your heart and mind. You do this by reading the Bible and not JUST reading it but studying it too. Listen to good, sound Bible teachers also. As the Word of God gets into your heart and mind, you will begin to grow in His wisdom and power and you will begin to see that our Father in Heaven is a GOOD FATHER, better than any father on the face of the Earth!