For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?1 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!  So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 7:8-12

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“I sure hope he’s in a good mood.” Whether you’re a kid approaching a parent, a student meeting with a teacher, an employee approaching your boss, or a driver that just got pulled over for going too fast, we all assume that people will be good when they’re in a good mood. And we fear the opposite based on personal experience along the road of life. It’s a roll of the dice, really. Why? Because we can’t be 100 percent certain how humans will treat us until we take a risk to interact.

Many of us transfer this earthly experience onto God. We presume the Almighty’s goodness toward us is dependent on his mood or our behavior. But the Lord’s integrity of character is true through and through regardless of what we feel might be true in any given moment. It’s true when we receive what we need. It’s true when we experience hardships. It’s true when the world is unsettling. It’s even true whether we choose to reach out to God or not.

God is good.

All the time.

Period.

The end.

You and I don’t have to worry about how He’ll respond because God isn’t into us rolling dice in our relationship with Him. We don’t have to approach the Lord with wishful thinking or wait to get on whatever we imagine is His “good side.” When we go to God, He will be true to His character and model goodness every time. He also promises to give us good gifts—specifically the Holy Spirit—when we keep asking, seeking, and knocking (see Luke 11:9-13, a parallel Gospel passage to Matthew 11:9-13). It’s not a 50/50, luck of the draw, chance that God will be good. His goodness is guaranteed.

Just like a parent toward a child, as Jesus teaches in today’s passage, you and I have an inherent capacity to demonstrate goodness as God’s image-bearers. Today, let’s stop rolling dice wondering if our heavenly Father is good. Instead, let’s start going to God confidently for what we need and being like Him toward others because it’s already true.

Next Steps   

Reread Matthew 7:8-12 and reflect on one way you’ve been surprised by the Lord’s goodness—recently or in the past. In prayer, thank God for this and ask Him to highlight how you can extend His goodness to someone else today.