Bad Dad?

People often say that if we ask God for something good He won’t give us something evil, and they use this text as proof. This is true. However, we might ask God for something, and yet receive something else from someone else and think it is God who gave it. Just because we ask God for something doesn’t mean anything we get is from God. True, if you ask the Father for a fish, the Father is not going to give you a snake. But that is the test – if you get a snake, you know it wasn’t God who gave it to you.

When our requests are for bread God grants them, but sometimes we ask for a snake thinking it's a fish, and God our Father, in His love and wisdom, refuses to give us the thing that would harm us. Sometimes we ask him to take away the bread He has given us thinking it is a stone. We get caught up in temporal circumstances and seek relief, yet God in His providence is directing our spiritual good despite our foolishness. But when we keep on asking for an unbiblical thing, we may think we got it, but it isn't from God the Father.