Luke 11:11-13 :

“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, he won’t give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he asks for an egg, he won’t give him a scorpion, will he? 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?”

In this passage, Jesus demonstrates that even a sinful father knows how to give good gifts to his own son. It only makes sense that a perfect Father would give very good gifts to His children. Some of the details in this example are interesting to study.

Jesus specifically mentions the Holy Spirit as the gift that the Father gives. In the human example He compares it to food such as bread, fish, and eggs. The Holy Spirit is God Himself. This is no small gift and every prophet in Israel would have wanted this gift the way that we get Him today. The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit permanently stays in a Christian when he believes. It is different than food in that we don’t need to keep coming back for more. There can be no better gift on earth than the gift of God living inside of us. Even though without food we will die, without the Holy Spirit we would die for all eternity. The physical death is only temporary. What we really need is salvation from the death to come.

Now the Holy Spirit can also bring insight to us. James calls it “wisdom:”

James 1:5 :

But 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.

I bet that James was remembering things like this that Jesus said while He was on earth with them. Since the Father in Heaven is perfect it only makes sense that He would give “to all liberally and without reproach.” Isn’t it true that when we are in trouble, we need the wisdom of God to help us get ourselves out of the situations that we find ourselves in? This is the very thing that our Father is committed to doing. What a wonderful thing it is to have a Father who takes the time to teach us what we really need to live! This is a good example to Christian parents. We should follow our father’s example and teach our children the wisdom of God.