Daily Devotional • September 30
A Reading from Matthew 7:1-12
1 “Do not judge, so that you may not be judged. 2 For the judgment you give will be the judgment you get, and the measure you give will be the measure you get. 3 Why do you see the speck in your neighbor’s eye but do not notice the log in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your neighbor, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ while the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye.
6 “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under foot and turn and maul you.
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. 9 Is there anyone among you who, if your child asked for bread, would give a stone? 10 Or if the child asked for a fish, would give a snake? 11 If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
12 “In everything do to others as you would have them do to you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”
Meditation
Few things reveal our understanding of God quite like prayer. This is why Jesus teaches us to pray by cranking up the volume on how we understand God’s generosity. What’s striking are the images he employs: praying is like asking someone who will give to you; praying is like seeking something you will find; praying is like knocking at a door that will be opened.
Jesus teaches that a key lesson for prayerfulness is the movement from scarcity to abundance. These verses come in the context of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is teaching that when “the poor in spirit” (5:3) pray, they are not coming to a god who wishes to withhold; they are coming to the God of abundance who delights to answer requests, open doors, and give good gifts.
The scarcity mindset we bring to prayer often reveals that we view God more as a stingy master than a gracious giver. No wonder Jesus uses a lesser-to-great example, a powerful pedagogical tool, to shift our image of God. Good parents don’t curse or withhold good gifts from their children. If even good parents—who are “evil” by comparison to the inexhaustible goodness of God—know how to give good gifts, how much more can we expect from the God who fashioned us by hand, sustains our every breath, and offered himself in Christ for our salvation?
This doesn’t solve the ache and mystery of unanswered prayer, but even then, we know Jesus tasted such an ache in the Gethesemane on our behalf. Here, his lesson is that the key to joy in prayer is not discipline but vision, a glimpse of the great abundance of God our Father, and the rejection of the lies of divine scarcity.
Claude Atcho is the pastor of Church of the Resurrection in Charlottesville, Virginia. He is the author of Reading Black Books: How African American Literature Can Make Our Faith More Whole and Just.
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Daily Devotional Cycle of Prayer
Today we pray for:
Saint Francis Ministries
The Diocese of Owerri – The Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion)
