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Divine Imperatives November 18 Devotional

by David Joynt on November 18, 2023


LUKE 11:13 | 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! 

 

Luke’s version of the “ask, seek, knock” teaching ends with a significant difference to Matthew’s version. Luke has Jesus, like Matthew, reminding us that God is  a great gift giver who’ll always respond to us. But he adds “how much more will God give the Holy Spirit” to those who ask him. Often we are content to ask God for help with the current crisis, direction in the present decision, and help in achieving our agendas.

 

We need to pray bigger prayers! We need to ask God for a deeper connection to his Divine Life, for a larger experience of his holiness and power, a stronger faith, a bigger love—a new experience of the Holy Spirit.

 

 

What do you ask God for?

 

 

Gracious God,

Let us dare to ask for more of you. Widen and deepen our requests and our longings.

Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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