When an egg looks like a scorpion

Just about every Christian knows and quotes Jesus famous words from Luke 11

9 And I say to you, Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you. 10 For every one that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.

Many people misinterpret these verses in a way that reduces God to a genie or Santa Claus. Having an expectation that God will always give us what we want leads to disillusionment when He doesn't. This is especially true when what we want is objectively good and He still declines to give it to us. Very often, Jesus follows a promise with a challenge, and He does so here.

 11And which of you, if he ask his father bread, will he give him a stone? or a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? 12 Or if he shall ask an egg, will he reach him a scorpion? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?

My good friend Dr. Fred Boley once told me that a key to surviving and advancing in faith is to recognize that sometimes an egg looks like a scorpion. One of my favorite expressions of this dynamic is George Bailey's famous line in "It's a wonderful life"

"I got a bust in the mouth as an answer to a prayer"

Of course, the most classic example were the words spoken by Our Lord, Himself.

My God, My God, Why have you forsaken me?

When God permits the child to die, the accident to occur, the job to be lost or the unspeakable crimes and tragedies and evils that pervade our society, He can seem cold, distant and even cruel. When we pray for days, months, years for things that are objective moral goods, God seems to counter the very words of Jesus recorded here by Saint Luke.

Ask, and it shall be given you: seek, and you shall find: knock, and it shall be opened to you.

This dynamic can be especially heartbreaking when we realize how dire a situation is, how powerless we are to solve it and how desperately we need God to move in a situation....

..... and He doesn't. Worse yet, your desperate prayer for relief may be followed by even more tragedies and trials and disappointments. I begged you for an egg and you handed mt a scorpion.

I come to you today as an equal and as someone who has many times, and deeply, confronted this trial.

There are two things I have learned regarding this that I need to share with you, and they go hand in hand. The first is the spiritual context of the passage:

13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father from heaven give the good Spirit to them that ask him?

The context of the passage is that we need never doubt that the Father- like any good earthly father- has our best interest in hand. This truth must be accepted with faith and that faith must be tested to be proved.

The 2nd dynamic is that the one and only thing God has absolutely promised to His faithful is the one thing more valuable than all other things combined- salvation.

That is the key that unlocks the door.

If we are truly His in faithfulness, He will deny us any thing- even a good thing- if it impedes our path to heaven. He will often permit a terrible thing, that a greater good may come from it.

If you have difficulty and stumble with this (as I have many times), talk to a martyr.