We Know Not What To Ask For

February 21.

If ye then, being evil, know bow to give
good gifts unto your children, how much more
shall your Father which is in heaven give
good gifts to them that ask Him?

MATTHEW 7, verse 11.


For His great love has compassed
Our nature, and our need
We know not; but He knoweth,
And He will bless indeed.
Therefore, O heavenly Father,
Give what is best to me;
And take the wants unanswered,
As offerings made to Thee.

ANONYMOUS.


Whatsoever we ask which is not for our good,
He will keep it back from us. And surely in this
there is no less of love than in the granting what
we desire as we ought. Will not the same love
which prompts you to give a good, prompt
you to keep back an evil, thing? If, in our
blindness, not knowing what to ask, we pray for
things which would turn in our hands to sorrow
and death, will not our Father, out of His very
love, deny us? How awful would be our lot, if
our wishes should straightway pass into realities;
if we were endowed with a power to bring about
all that we desire; if the inclinations of our will
were followed by fulfilment of our hasty wishes,
and sudden longings were always granted.
One day we shall bless Him, not more for what
He has granted than for what He has denied.

H. E. MANNING.