Gospel for Asia Issues Special Report on Remarkable Fathers


by Lou Gutheil, GFA guest writer

“You fathers–if your children ask for a fish, do you give them a snake instead? Or if they ask for an egg, do you give them a scorpion? Of course not!” (Luke 11:11–12 NLT)

One of His disciples had asked Jesus to teach them how to pray. On that occasion, Jesus gave them a format for prayer that we some call The Lord’s Prayer and others refer to as “The Model Prayer. His comment quoted above serves as an exclamation of how remarkable our Heavenly Father is.

Having just taught them to ask the Lord for daily sustenance, He used the illustration of how earthly fathers would respond to the same request from their own sons. He reasoned with them that, if a father would gladly give his children the essentials of life — and even more so, not only give what they needed and requested but also not substitute harmful things instead — how much more would a thrice-holy Father respond in goodness, grace, and kindness?

We can infer that Jesus expected even sinful fathers would treat their children with kindness, although that kindness could not compare to the remarkable love of our Father in Heaven.

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