It had been far too long since my family had been to the beach—but finally, our vacation-free streak was ending. The beach condo was booked, suitcases were packed and we were all looking forward to sunny ocean views.
Then, we checked the weather forecast. “Rain,” it gloomily predicted, “every day next week.”
If I’m honest, I was more than a little disappointed that our long-awaited vacation was going to be a wash out—and I complained to the Lord about it. But as I stewed over the matter, a question entered my mind, just as clearly as if it had been audibly spoken to me:
“Don’t you trust that I know how to give good gifts to My children?”
This question touched on something far deeper than my disappointment over a little rain and I had to wrestle with it. It reminds me of the questions Jesus posed to His disciples in Luke 11:11-13:
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?”
Sometimes, when we feel stuck in long wilderness seasons or our prayers seem to go unanswered, we can struggle to trust God as gift-giver. Yet this passage gives us three good reasons to trust Him, anyway.
ONE. The Good Father
Jesus begins these verses by comparing our Heavenly Father to earthly fathers. But before we get to the comparison itself, we first need to consider the underlying reality that God is our Father, now.
As Believers, God has adopted us into His very own family—and He is the head of that family. So, whether or not we have earthly fathers involved in our lives, we have a heavenly Father who has seen every moment of our stories and who promises to take care of us through all our coming days. God is not a far-off God. He is a near and personal One.
Plus, He is the best kind of father we could ask for. You see, even the greatest human fathers are just that—human, with their own unique blend of strengths and weaknesses. But our heavenly Father has no weaknesses or flaws. His fatherhood is marked by all the perfections of His character—perfect love, perfect justice, perfect faithfulness, holiness, impartiality and kindness. In all of His actions toward us, He blends goodness with even more goodness. This is why Jesus makes the point that if human fathers can be trusted to give good gifts, our heavenly Father can be trusted even more.
TWO. The Good Gift
This conversation between Jesus and His disciples is recorded in more than one gospel—and there are some interesting variations between them. For example, the Matthew account says, “If you, then, being 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!” (emphasis mine)
Matthew’s version reminds us that we can trust God to bring good gifts of all kinds into our lives. That is His heart toward us—generous. So, when we look around at the landscape of our lives and see rain instead of the sun we long for, we need to trust God’s character and keep looking for the good He is sure to bring from our circumstances. He cares about every aspect of our lives and He knows what we need. We can trust Him to fill up our stories with what is good and, specifically, what is good for us by His all-wise definition.
Of course, the Luke account of this conversation says things a little differently. It zeros in on one specific gift that God wants to give us, saying, “how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him?” (emphasis mine)
The moment we accept Christ, the Holy Spirit comes to live inside us. We don’t have to beg, He just comes and immediately goes to work in our hearts. But as we walk forward as Christians, we sometimes experience moments where we need an extra measure of His help. When our way isn’t working or our circumstances are more than we can bear, we need Him enable our steps, to heal our hurts, transform our desires, and lift up our eyes.
The Holy Spirit is the greatest gift because He is the gift that keeps on giving. God, our Father, doesn’t want to merely give us stuff that will eventually wear out. He wants to give us His Spirit, who keeps on supplying us with exactly what we need from out of the Father’s boundless resources.
THREE. The Good of Asking
In light of all the good that God has to give, it’s important to look at verse thirteen once again. To whom does our Father give such wonderful gifts? Jesus tells us: “to those who ask him.”
You know, as I wrestled with the question, “Don’t you trust me to give good gifts?” on that beach trip, the Holy Spirit did a work in me. Instead of staying grumpy because things weren’t going according to my plan, I simply started asking God to give what was good—and to help me see the good in it. Looking back, He did exactly that. The sun came out for a portion of every day and I found that even the rainy portions held blessings of their own.
The lesson I learned was about more than how to enjoy a rainy week at the beach. It was about how to trust my Father in the rainy seasons of life. As God’s children, we have a good Father. So, even when the landscape is rainy and the forecast predicts more of the same, we have a greater and surer forecast to hold onto. Our Father will be good to us—it’s His nature—and He will give good gifts, even if our eyes don’t recognize them immediately. Our part is to simply ask with childlike faith and then to look for the good—both in the landscape of lives and in the Spirit’s work in our hearts.
This devotion is based on one of the Scriptures from my 2025 reading plan: “A Year in the Gospels” To receive a copy of the reading plan (and future reading plans), sign up for the email list below. Hope you’ll follow along! You can also learn more about my Scripture over Screentime experiment here.
Written by Paige K. Burhans
©2025 Paige K. Burhans
Scriptures taken from the World English Bible British Edition. Public Domain.
