Gleanings from readings. . .

I read in the USA Today recently that in 2006 the amount of unclaimed lottery winnings in the United States totaled over 570 million dollars. "Wowie zowie!" as my niece Lucy Gates would say. But that sum would be seen as a dull penny if put up against the number of blessings unclaimed by Christians.

In Luke 11 Jesus tells the parable of the man who knocks on his neighbor's door at midnight for bread to serve a friend who has just arrived from a long journey. He is refused at first but is persistent and continues to knock until he shakes the man from his sheets and receives the bread he needs. Christ tells this tale in the context of a conversation He's having on the practice of prayer. We are being taught to be as persistent in our entreaties made to our heavenly Father. "And I say to you, ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened." (9 - 10) This seems simple enough until Jesus reveals what it is that should cause us to go knocking desperately at the midnight hour: "Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?" (11 - 13) The Holy Spirit is what God is promising to provide - in this lies the problem.

In the times I've spent at the altar with people who have come forward after their consciences have been quickened, hearts broken, minds rankled by the preaching of the Word - I've heard many of them cry out to God, earnestly asking Him for self-control, or peace of mind, or love, or joy, or the ability to be faithful. Sadly, many of these people will leave that altar knowing that their prayers didn't get above the chapel ceiling. They earnestly desire the ends but despair of the means. All that they so desperately want in their lives is clearly the fruit of the Spirit. The Israelites couldn't ask for milk and honey in the wilderness when it was promised to them in Canaan and we can't ask for a victorious Christianity in independence when it is promised to us in submission. I can't think of any treasure that we truly want that isn't promised to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Why are we so often terrified of claiming the winnings?