Seeking the Best Gift

When I was a child, all I wanted from my parents was more toys or more time to play with my toys. I didn’t want them to bother me as long as I could remain in my little self-made world.

Dad was effectively a Santa Claus.

But as I grew up, it became more valued just to have time spent together, and to know him as a person—his interests, hopes, dreams and burdens.

This is quite like how it is with God, isn’t it?

Our preacher Tze-Ming commented that as we grow up, we become mature children and then we start to share the Father’s concerns for his suffering, broken world. What then does the world need? More toys? More time to play with our toys?

Our Father is a good Father. He will give us all we need to live—even the trivial things. But more than that, He offers us what’s necessary to make our joy full (John 15:11). God wants to fill us with joy. And He knows exactly what will complete our joy.

Himself.

Consider Luke’s version of the passage we have been studying: “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!” (Luke 11:13).

We are familiar with the Holy Spirit helping us bear fruit and giving us gifts to build up the church. But here we see the Spirit Himself as a good gift! The Spirit enables us to relate to God as sons and daughters (Galatians 4:6-7). The Spirit immerses us into a loving relationship with God (Romans 5:5) to understand the mind of our Father (1 Corinthians 2:10-16) and also to understand Jesus and His words to us (John 16:13-15).

More could be said, but here’s the main point: NO Spirit means NO reconciliation and NO relationship with God. So Jesus is saying, ask for your Father, seek your Father, knock on His door till He draws you into ever deeper intimacy with Him.

This echoes the sentiment of the psalmist when he says, “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you… because your steadfast love is better than life.” (Psalm 63:1-3). Again: “One thing have I asked of the Lord, that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord…” (Psalm 27:4). This is the language of love.

Now all this only makes sense when we have matured as God’s children and have come to realize that the greatest gift that our Father offers us is none other than Himself, through His Son Jesus. Every other gift that our Father has to offer cannot compare with the gift of the Giver Himself.

Father, would You stir up our affections and devotion to You such that You become what I want above all else. Let me ask, seek, and knock for You, above all else. Your kingdom come; Your will be done. Amen.

By Ng Zhiwen