Daily Devotional For Tuesday, February 27, 2024

It’s Tuesday. Yeah! I have a question for you. If you could be granted one wish, any wish no matter what it is, or how bizarre or strange or odd it may appear to others, I mean any wish, what would you wish? Oh, one more thing. Whatever this wish is there is a hidden catch. By being granted it, you would have to give up your greatest strength in exchange. Would you still do it? As children, we often go off to la-la land in our imagination to be super heroes or famous people or rich or some athlete or singer or movie star or even movie character and etc. 

Make A Wish Foundation is a 501-3C corporation that attempts to make wishes for 2.5 year olds up to 18 year olds who have terminal illnesses. Make-A-Wish traces its inspiration to Chris Greicius, a child with leukemia who wished to be a police officer. In 1980, a community came together and made his wish come true. The impact of his wish was felt throughout his community and was the inspiration for what is now Make-A-Wish. Today, it is our vision at Make-A-Wish to develop the resources to grant the wish of every eligible child.  You can go to their web site and read the wishes they have helped come true for terminally ill children.

Look at Proverbs 13:19,” It is so good when wishes come true, but fools hate to stop doing evil” (EXB). I remember my mother used to say, “Be careful what you wish for. Because when you get it, you might later wish you never had it.” Here are some possible wishes you’re glad never came true. How about that person in middle school you had a crush on back then. You through they hung the moon. Now, you’re glad nothing materialized because today they are always hung over. Or that handsome guy or beautiful girl in high school you were dating and after high school you broke up. Today, you’re thinking, “What was I thinking. Praise God we never got married!”

Look at Proverbs 13:12, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life” (ESV). There is nothing wrong with wishing or wishes, but sometimes we can make our wishes only about ourselves. 

Proverbs 13:19 connects some wishes to doing evil. Folly or foolishness mimics wisdom’s call in Proverbs 9:4, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says” (ESV). The “she” here is folly or foolishness. In the Proverbs 8. Wisdom addressed all mankind (Proverbs 8:4 — “To you, O men, I (wisdom) call, and my cry is to the children of man,” ESV). 

Then wisdom focused her attention on the callow and stupid (Proverbs 8:5, “O simple ones, learn prudence; O fools, learn sense,” ESV), but they would not listen. Now foolishness appeals to those who are susceptible to seduction, and to the senseless person, who is like an empty vessel ready to be filled with more foolishness rather than wisdom. 

But at times the book of Proverbs makes no distinction between the susceptible type and the senseless type. Why? Because both types refuse to ask for wisdom as James 1:5-8 encourages everyone below:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. (6) But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. (7) For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; (8) he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (ESV),

Those who do not seek God’s wisdom will be considered as “abandon callowness” as seen in Proverbs 9:6, “Leave your simple ways, and live, and walk in the way of insight” (ESV). Even Jesus warned us about the compromise of desiring something more than God in Matthew 6:24, “No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other” (ESV).

So, I ask you again: if you could be granted any wish no matter how impossible it may seem, but you would have to give up your greatest strength in exchange, would you still ask that they wish be granted? David writes in Psalm 119:30 this: “The unfolding of Your Words gives light; it imparts understanding (wisdom) to the simple” (ESV). 

The reason I keep asking this question is because Jesus says this in Matthew 7:7-9:

“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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (9) Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? (10) Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? (11) If you then, who are 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!” (ESV).

It almost seems like a wish list grant verse, doesn’t it? Well, up to this point Jesus has been teaching in the Sermon on the Mount principles about how to discern falsehood and apostasy. That is the context for this verse. Pastor and author John MacArthur writes this:

Contrary to some popular interpretations, verses 7-9 are not a blank check for just anyone to present to God. 

First of all, the promise is valid only for believers. Throughout the Sermon on the Mount Jesus’ promises are addressed only to believers. A large mass of unbelievers, including some scribes and Pharisees, no doubt were in the multitude on the side of the mountain that day. In this sermon, however, Jesus always speaks of scribes, Pharisees, hypocrites, false prophets, insincere followers, and all other unbelievers in the third person—as if none of them were the direct target of His words. On other occasions (as in Matt. 23) the Lord addresses such persons directly; but during this message all of His references to them are indirect. He gives this sermon to His disciples (5:1–2, “Seeing the crowds, He went up on the mountain, and when He sat down, His disciples came to Him. (2) And He opened His mouth and taught them, saying . . .” (ESV) with the crowd listening to His teaching His own disciples.

“Everyone” refers to those who belong to the heavenly Father. Those who are not God’s children cannot come to Him as their Father. The two overriding relationships focused on in the book of Matthew are those of God’s kingdom and God’s family. The kingdom concept deals with rule, and the family concept deals with relationship. In the Sermon on the Mount the primary focus is on God’s family, and we see repeated references to God as heavenly Father (Matt. 5:11; cf. Mat. 5:16, 45, 48; Matt. 6:4, 8–9, 26, 32) and to fellow believers as brothers (Matt. 5:22–24; 7:3–5). 

Second, the one who claims this promise must be living in obedience to his Father. “Whatever we ask we receive from Him,” John says, “because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight” (1 John 3:22).

Third, our motive in asking must be right. “You ask and do not receive,” explains James, “because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3). God does not obligate Himself to answer selfish, carnal requests from His children.

Finally, we must be submissive to His will. If we are trying to serve both God and mammon (Matt. 6:24, see above), we cannot claim this promise. “For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord, being a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:7–8). As John makes clear, “This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us” (1 John 5:14). To have confidence in answered prayer on any other basis is to have a false and presumptuous confidence that the Lord makes no promise to honor.

Another possible qualification is perseverance, suggested by the present imperative tenses of ask, seek, and knock. The idea is that of continuance and constancy: “Keep on asking; keep on seeking; keep on knocking” is a better translation. We also see a progression of intensity in the three verbs, from simple asking to the more aggressive seeking to the still more aggressive knocking. Yet none of the figures is complicated or obscure. The youngest child knows what it is to ask, seek, and knock.

The progression in intensity also suggests that our sincere requests to the Lord are not to be passive. Whatever of His will we know to do we should be doing. If we are asking the Lord to help us find a job, we should be looking for a job ourselves while we await His guidance and provision. If we are out of food, we should be trying to earn money to buy it if we can. If we want help in confronting a brother about a sin, we should be trying to find out all we can about him and his situation and all we can about what God’s Word says on the subject involved. It is not faith but presumption to ask the Lord to provide more when we are not faithfully using what He has already given (John MacArthur, The MacArthur New Testament Commentary, “Matthew,” pp. 443-444).

It is interesting what Jesus said in the prior verse to Matthew 7:7-9. Look at verse 6, “Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you” (ESV). Why this verse prior to Matthew 7:7-9? Chuck Swindoll gives us some insight on this  (Charles R. Swindoll, Swindoll’s New Testament Commentary for New Testament Living, “Matthew,” p. 129):

Today in the West, dogs are pampered pets, and pork is “the other white meat.” But in the Old and New Testament periods, Jews generally considered both dogs and pigs unclean and deplorable.

In the first century, as in many third-world countries today, dogs ran wild, usually in packs, and they were often vicious and dangerous. ⁽See “Dog,” in Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary, ed. Chad Brand, et al. (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2003), p. 438.) They were known as scavengers that roamed the streets. They were certainly unclean. The term “dog” was sometimes used as a metaphor for wicked people (see Isa. 56:10–11)—those outside the community of faith (see Rev. 22:15).

Swine were also considered unclean and were often intrusive; they damaged property, and many were aggressive and dangerous. With regard to first-century swine, we should picture the wild boar, not the modern domestic pig. Jews so abhorred the pig that many would not even say the name of the animal, referring to it simply as “the abomination” (see Henry Chichester Hart, The Animals Mentioned in the Bible (London: The Religious Tract Society, 1888), p. 45).

Questions To Consider

1. Do you tend to ask God for things hoping He will give them to you while at the same time, there are areas in your life out of obedience to Jesus Christ? If so, confess that first before you ask. What are those areas? As I said in Sunday’s sermon, God can’t do the seeding until we do the weeding. 
2. Read Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:33, “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you” (ESV). Does this describe you? Do you seek God’s kingdom and His righteousness for your life first — before you ask God for anything? Why or why not? What is it in God’s kingdom you are not choosing to seek and why? What would it take for you to do that?
3. How often do you seek God’s wisdom before making decisions? Why?

Scripture To Meditate On: Proverbs 9:4, “Whoever is simple, let him turn in here!” To him who lacks sense she says” (ESV).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I need Your wisdom to even know what to ask for in my life. I can go through the whole day without ever really asking You or Your Word what You think. Please forgive me for this. It is like the old hymn says, “I need Thee, O I need Thee, Every hour I need Thee, O bless me now, my Savior I come to Thee, O bless me now, my Savior, I come to Thee.” Jesus, I want to seek You first, Your kingdom second, and Your rule in my life third so that I bring glory to You and the Gospel. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside, Pastor Kelly