When we ask God for things in prayer, God does not give us that which will hurt us.
“So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish? Or if the child asks for an egg, will give a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”
If a child asks a parent for a fish, no parent gives a snake instead. And if a child wants an egg, no mentally healthy parent would give the child a scorpion. Jesus uses this commonsense parenting illustration to underscore the goodness and grace of God. When we ask God for things in prayer, God does not give us that which will hurt us. Sometimes the good God gives is not what we had hoped, true enough. But God is generous, not only with many good gifts but also with the gift of his own Spirit. When we pray, God makes his very presence known to us, and that is indeed a wonderful gift.
This passage from Luke 11 reminds me of things I’d rather forget. No, I’m not talking about times when God said “No” to my prayers. The things I’d rather forget are actually snakes and scorpions. I’m not being metaphorical here, using “snakes and scorpions” as ways of talking about spiritual warfare. I’m talking about real snakes and real scorpions. I know they’re essential in the circle of life, but I really don’t appreciate them.
When my family and I lived in Springville, CA, I encountered only a few scary snakes, by which I mean venomous. In seven years I saw only three rattlesnakes in the wild. I did find a coral snake in my backyard once, which was unsettling even though this poisonous snake is quite beautiful and relatively harmless. But, for the most part, the snakes I encountered in Texas were the non-venomous kind.
Scorpions, on the other hand, haunted my days and nights. Shortly after we moved into our home, I almost stepped on a scorpion in my bedroom. That night, I examined the exterior of our home with an ultraviolet light, which causes scorpions to glow in the dark. I discovered several of those ugly little creatures on the walls of our house. So, over the next seven years, even with help from the pest control folks, we had several dozen scorpions inside. Somehow, I managed to avoid being stung. Not so for my wife, however. The good news was that the scorpions have a painful but relatively harmless sting, so Linda survived her two scorpion stings.
Given my experience, I get completely what Jesus says about prayer in Luke 11:11-13. I cannot imagine any parent responding to their child’s request for a fish by handing over a snake. Plus, no parent I know would ever give their child a scorpion, certainly not if the child had asked for an egg. Such things just don’t happen.
Jesus uses the parent-child-snake-scorpion illustration to make a strong point about God’s good gifts to us. He says, “If you then, you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (Luke 11:13). We are evil, not in the sense that everything we do is morally wrong, but in a more intrinsic sense. Our hearts have been corrupted by sin. We cannot avoid the presence of evil in our lives and in our souls. Yet, even so, we give good gifts to our children. Therefore our Heavenly Father, in whom there is no evil at all, will be even more gracious and generous in giving good gifts to us when we ask for them. This encourages us to be bold and persistent in prayer, to tell God exactly what we’d like him to do for us, to pray, and keep on praying.
Notice, though, that Jesus does not say in Luke that our Father in heaven will “give good things to those who ask him.” He did say that in Matthew 7:11. In Luke, however, Jesus says that God will “give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him” (11:13). Isn’t that interesting?!?! Though we may not receive from the Lord exactly what we had asked, we will receive something even better, the indwelling, comforting, empowering Spirit of God. That’s quite a promise.
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