Matthew 7:12
Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
With a loving Father in our lives nothing is impossible…absolutely nothing. In all that we do include Him and He will direct our path. In unison with Father, Son and Holy Spirit we are promised redemption and inclusion in His plans to redeem the world. Go out and shine His light into the darkness that we now live in. Pray for His will to be done on earth as it is in His Kingdom. Carla
Matthew 7:7-11
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, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 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 good things to those who ask Him!
Ask is the first of three commands in this verse. Jesus’ followers are to ask for what they need. In each of the three statements here, Jesus’ point is the same: When God’s people pursue something—by asking, seeking, knocking—He responds in faithfulness and generosity. This verse emphasizes the need for an authentic relationship with God. The Greek verb used here for seek, zēteō, indicates looking for something or trying to find something. God is still the one who allows for this action to take place. Will give him a snake is the rhetorical questions in Matthew 7:9–10 and sets up the comparison in verse 11 between earthly fathers and the heavenly Father.
Jesus compares sinful humanity with a holy God. Jesus argues from a lesser principle to a greater one. Human parents know how to give their children good things; by comparison, the heavenly Father can do abundantly more for His children. Faithlife Study Bible
The phrase the Law and the Prophets echoes 5:17. This so-called “Golden Rule” is the practical application of Leviticus 19:18: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” The NKJV Study Bible
John 15:7
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
James 1:5–8
If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind…
1 John 3:22
And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.
Matthew 18:19
“Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.
Matthew 21:22
And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
In my memory I’m back in southern Michigan, the son of a brick mason. I’ve been on countless constructions sites. Most of them as a hod carrier (mixing mortar, lugging bricks). So many days eager to quit. And hearing my father’s words, “Son, build this one like you’re building your own.” (Twenty-six years ago, my father helped me build my house on Vashon Island.)
Here's the deal: We forget, or we do not see, that we make a difference, with every nail we hammer, each board we choose, each brick we mortar, each window we put in place.
And here’s the deal: because we live in a culture of bluster and ado, we forget that we can make a difference. So. More often than not, the wrong people get all the attention. (Okay, my confession, I forget that I can make a difference, one nail at a time.)
I’m with David Orr here, “The plain fact is that the planet does not need more successful people. But it does desperately needs more peacemakers, healers, restorers, storytellers, and lovers of every kind.”
Here’s to the restorative power of small gestures… one nail at a time.
We are, all of us, builders.
We are, all of us, about the business of building places and spaces for human dignity and inclusion.
Building spaces for kindness and compassion and mercy.
Building spaces for justice and hope.
Building spaces for resilience and confidence, and courage and safety and wellbeing. But this is important. This parable is not meant to scold us into making a difference. It’s a recognition that we have been created and are able to do so. This is not about bootstraps and will power and consternation. This is about letting the language of our (replenished and not overwhelmed) heart speak. Letting the light inside—the Imago Dei—spill.
Yes. Inside every one of us—in our DNA—we have the tools that we need, to navigate these unpredictable times. Yes, the “tools” to be builders—the empowerment to draw upon mercy and compassion—to create (“build”) places of sanctuary, and healing, and grace, even where cruelty and callousness are real.
When I live from overwhelmed, I react, I live fearful, and I give in to cynicism. No wonder the first to go are my courage, and my ability to laugh. Which is not good considering that they both come from the same muscle in our heart. As builders, this is abundantly clear: We are connected. Every single one of us.
“Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly. I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be. This is the interrelated structure of reality,” Martin Luther King Jr. reminds us.
Receiving his induction into TV’s Hall of Fame, Fred Rogers tells the audience, “We are chosen to be servants, it doesn’t matter what our particular job.” SABBATH MOMENTS
Love God.
Love a neighbor.
Be a neighbor,
and let us not complicate things
by arguing about the specifics.
You know what it means to do love
because some time or another
you have been on the receiving end of love...
If you want the world to look different
next time you go outside,
do some love.
Do a little or do a lot,
but do some,
and do not forget to get some for yourself...
Just do it,
and find out that when you do,
you do live and live abundantly,
just like the man said.
Barbara Brown Taylor
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