"If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!"
Matthew 7:11 (NIV)
Your view of God as Father was shaped long before you ever believed in Him. A father who kept his word, or one who never did. A father who showed up, or one who disappeared. Whatever you experienced first quietly became your starting definition of what a father is. You brought that definition with you into every prayer you have ever prayed.
That starting definition might be keeping you from trusting God completely. If your father let you down, it is easy to expect God to let you down too. If your father used love as leverage, it is easy to read God's commands the same way. The comparison feels natural. It is also the very comparison Jesus corrects.
Jesus does not deny that human parents can fail. He assumes it. He calls even the best of us evil, bluntly, without softening the word. Then He makes His real point. If broken people still know how to give their children something good, the Abba Father who is not broken can be trusted even more.
Whatever kind of father you had, God is not limited by his mistakes. The same Father who already knows the difference between bread and stone also has no brokenness in Him to work around. He is not haunted by the same fears, doubts, or self-interest that shaped how you were loved. What you received from an earthly father, good or lacking, was always going to fall short of this.
Your trust in God does not have to rest on how well you were fathered. It rests on who He actually is, not on what fathers have shown you so far. You do not need a good example to believe He is good. You only need to trust what He said about Himself in this verse.
Godseekers, do not let your father set the ceiling for what you expect from God. He gives good gifts, not because a human parent taught Him how, but because He has always been the source good parents draw from. Bring Him whatever you are still afraid to ask for. He is not working with anyone else's limitations.
Prayer
Lord, I have measured Your love by what I learned from someone else's failures. Forgive me for expecting less from You than You have already shown me. You are not limited by anyone who let me down. Teach me to trust who You actually are, not who I assumed You would be. In Jesus' name, Amen.
Personal Reflection
- Where do you catch yourself expecting God to fail you the way someone else once did?
- What did your experience of being fathered, or not fathered, teach you to expect from God, and is that belief actually true of Him?
Step of Faith
Name one expectation of God you inherited from someone else's failure. Tell Him plainly that you want to trust who He actually is instead.
