If ye then; being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children; how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him? LUKE 11: 13
JESUS DESIRES all His disciples to pray for the Holy Spirit. He knows that we cannot believe at the first, nor continue believing without this precious gift. He knows that our soul cannot live, love, resist the devil, mortify the deeds of the body, nor overcome the world, without this living water; therefore does He urge His people to ask, seek, and knock. He is still saying to poor sinners, "If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water" (John 4: 10).
1. Earthly fathers, who are evil, give good gifts to their children. This is a fact in human nature. The most wicked fathers are often kind to their offspring. In some countries it is true, Satan has shown his infernal power in destroying the parental affections, so that the Hindoo mother has been known to plunge her sickly infant into the Ganges, or even to hurry it, while yet alive, into a grave dug with her own hands, and to trample the ground over it with her own feet. "The dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty." In general, however, there is, even in the bosom of savage men, a chord of tenderest love toward their little ones. The wild Indian of America will bring home from the woods the most brilliant feather to deck the brow of his prattling boy; and the rude Greenlander will brave the icy blast to provide a scanty meal for his tender children. You must break a father's heart in pieces, before you can break asunder that mysterious bond of love that binds him to his child. Earthly fathers who are evil give good gifts to their children.
2. How much more shall God, who is a good Father, give the Holy Spirit. God excels an earthly father in two respects:
(i) He is wise, "the only wise God". Earthly fathers are short-sighted men. They do not know the wants of their children, nor do they know the best time and way of supplying these wants. They often give to their children when they should withhold, they pamper their humours, and spoil their dispositions; they often withhold when they should give, and provoke their children to fretfulness. But God is a wise Father. "The Father of spirits" knows our frame, and remembers that we are dust. He knows our minutest wants, and He knows the very best time and way of supplying them. Above all, He knows our need of the Holy Spirit. He knows that we are naturally dead in trespasses and sins. He knows that a vail is over our hearts - He knows that our faith is weak - and that our enemies are too many for us, and too strong. He knows the temptations and afflictions to which we are called. He knows the manner and measure of the Spirit's help – which we need to keep us from falling.
(ii) God is love. God has a natural love to a soul in Christ. Earthly fathers love their children, but O how coldly compared with God's love. In Isaiah 49:15 it is preferred above a mother's love: "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee." There is no love in this world like a mother's love. It is a free, unbought, unselfish love. She cannot account for it. You cannot change it. You must break to pieces the mother's heart before you will change it. It is the fullest love with which a creature can love. She loves with all her heart. But the love of God to a soul in Christ is far above a mother's love. It is a love ingrained in His nature, and God must change before His love can change. It is a full love. The whole heart of the Father is as it were continually showered down in love upon the Lord Jesus. And when a sinner comes into Christ the same love rests upon that soul (see John 17:26). When the sun showers down its beams on the wide ocean, and on a little flower at the same time, it is the same sunshine that is poured into both, though the ocean has vastly larger capacity to receive its glorious beams. So when the Son of God receives the love of His Father, and a poor guilty worm hides in Him, it is the same love that comes both on the Saviour and the sinner, though Jesus is able to receive infinitely more. In Psalm 103:13, God's love is compared to a father's love: "Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear him." His love combines all the tenderness of a mother's, and all the wisdom of a father's love. How surely then will He give the Holy Spirit to every one of His children that ask Him. Far more surely than an earthly father gives bread to his hungry children. This is good news for my weary soul. I am like David in the wilderness (Psalm 63 title), "My soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is". "My soul followeth hard after thee; thy right hand upholdeth me." All my grace comes from thee. Thou didst begin the good work in me when I was an enemy, wilt thou not carry it on, now that I am a child? Thou didst pour down the Spirit when I was like the dry ground, wilt thou not water me every moment now that I am a plant though a feeble one, of thine own planting? Hear the divine answer, O my soul, and be still! "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned away from him. I will be as the dew unto Israel" (Hosea 14:4-5).