“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!”

These are the words of Jesus to his disciples in Luke 11 after he instructed them how to pray.

Again he uses the analogy of a father to his children, just as he does at the beginning of the prayer that he taught them. From a child’s perspective he does not know all that is good for him. He doesn’t know that going to the dentist is good, nor that homework, or hard work, or respect are good things. And yet without these things he would be left with an unhealthy body, mind, and unable to enjoy right relationships with the rest of society. These are good things, but as a child he only sees the here and now, and what makes him feel the way he wants to in this moment.

How difficult it is for a parent to get a child to understand the importance of life’s responsibilities and the necessity of unpleasant experiences. How much more difficult will it then be for us to understand the reason behind the struggles, pain, frustration, death, suffering and all other emotional and spiritual difficulties that God allows to enter our lives. Are we not his children who have “died to sin”? Does he not care for us?

We know from scripture that the ultimate reason that we experience suffering and death in this world is because of our own sin. Death is said in scripture to be the sting of sin. If we are in fact sinners (and we are!) then we are cut off from the life of God and thus already experiencing spiritual death. Is it not then gracious of God to allow us to feel the pain of this death so that we might flee it?

If he did not care, would he not simply let us remain in our complacent state of death until the ultimate end came without warning us? But rather he cares so deeply about his creation, that even after sin he desires to give us good gifts–but only through the Spirit that comes by faith in his son’s sacrifice on our behalf.

Sometimes the greatest gift could be in the form of suffering. For whenever we suffer we are jerked out of our blind selfish lives and forced to examine ourselves and atleast ask “why?”.

For this reason, we need to know how to approach God so that we know that we are atleast benefiting from the trial that we are going through so that it may indeed be a “good gift”. If we remain preoccupied with self pity we blind ourselves to the Holy Spirit’s sanctifying work.

For this reason the disciples ask Jesus: “Teach us to pray.” For the suffering is a good gift and this must be taken by faith. But to receive the good gift, we must learn to take on God’s perspective through the gift of his Holy Spirit. And this learning process is prayer.

Jesus is not telling his disciples to ask for anything that you find to be good and God will not refuse you. He is telling his disciples that whatever happens these are good things to ask for, for they are the gifts of the Holy Spirit which will cause all things to work out for good in your life if your eyes are on your relationship with him