“…how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!” (Luke 11:11).

Jesus had been talking to His disciples about asking and receiving…even asking with hungry persistence.  “Ask, seek, and knock,” He says, “for fish, eggs and loaves of bread.”  I am certain that we all know something of this.  Haven’t we all asked of God, at times, with the persistence of someone starving for bread?  I have, and may I say, I hope that you have too?  It is the way the children of God come to understand the Father’s “how much more” type of giving to those who ask Him.

As our hunger deepens, so does our asking.  If you have had to wait to receive that good thing for which you have asked, then you know this.  I wonder if, when the waiting is long, God is letting our hunger build until what we have asked for is no longer enough, until our hunger exceeds it.  The progression of our hunger goes something like this: we ask, we wait, we grow impatient, we may manipulate (even just a wee bit!), which can become confusing, but will become, for those still asking, a hunger big enough to be satisfied with much more than the good “fish, eggs and bread”  for which we have asked.  How much more?  As much more as to begin to satisfy one of our hungriest questions: “Why?”  As much more as our heavenly Father gives…and He gives the Holy Spirit who distributes to us every good thing planned by the Father and purchased by the Son, and who satisfies us as centrally and practically as bread, fish and eggs.  

Take in everything He gives and your hunger will be satisfied.

Author: Carolyn Roehrig