Luke 11:11-13

A further admonition: V. 11. If a son shall ask bread of any of you that is a father, will he give him. a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he for a fish give him a serpent? V. 12. Or if he shall ask an egg, will he offer him a scorpion? V. 13. If ye, then, being evil, know how to give good, gifts unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him!

Jesus draws a final lesson from the love which parents bear to their children. Whom of you, being a father, shall his son ask for bread, -- surely he will not give him a stone! Or also a fish, -- surely he will not give him, instead of the fish, a serpent! Or also an egg, -- surely he will not give a scorpion (the latter being a lobsterlike animal lurking in stone walls).

A parent that would act as Jesus describes would be inhuman. No normal, sane father would be capable of such cruelty. And now Jesus makes the conclusion from the smaller to the greater. If human parents, whose disposition of heart is by nature evil, will show so much affection toward their children, surely the Father from heaven, in His merciful goodness and grace, will give the Holy Ghost, the highest and most wonderful gift from above, the gift which includes all other spiritual gifts, to them that ask Him!

God wants the Christians to pray, and He intends to give them the spiritual gifts which they have need of without condition. But He insists upon being asked, lest the gifts lose their value in the eyes of men, and lest the Christians become careless about working out their own salvation with fear and trembling. He does not force His gifts upon unwilling and indifferent hearts.