I never cease to be amazed at the tenderness of God’s fatherly care and love toward me. When I struggle with assurance and doubts and pour out my heart before Him about it, He responds by lightening my burden, as if He stooped down to remove the unnecessary load I was carrying, giving me peace that “surpasses all comprehension” (Phil. 4:7, NASB). When I have asked Him for protection from temptation, and to make me hate evil so much that sin would lose its appeal, He has graciously come to my aid in that regard as well. How can anyone doubt Jesus’ words when He said:

7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:7–11, NASB).

The parallel passage in Luke 11:9–13 is just as beautiful:

9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. 11 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? 12 Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” (NASB)

I like to say to others, “You can’t get to the bottom of God’s goodness.” How true!

I say to all those who don’t know Jesus Christ:

O taste and see that the Lord is good;
How blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him! (Ps. 34:8, NASB)

There is no real love, no real repentance, nothing apart from faith in Christ. Jesus told His disciples that “apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5, ESV), and that is just as true about us today. Without looking in faith at Christ on the cross bleeding for us and providing our only redemption, without that faith, we can have no fruit. If you wish to be fruitful in your Christian life—spiritually vibrant, full of love and kindness and joy and the other fruits of the Spirit—there is no other way than the way of faith: looking to Christ alone and clinging to His perfect work on the cross.

Praise God for the magnificent salvation He has provided us in His Son!