“Or what man is there of you, who, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”
This is not self-evident. If it were, then there would be more people with faith. The truth revealed here is that God is always going to bestow a worthy gift upon the person requesting it.
He will not give you a “stone” if you request “bread.” He will give you “bread.” He knows the difference. He will not disappoint you.
He knows better than any kind and caring earthly father what the needs of His children are. He intends to meet them.
However, when His children ask for something, (“bread”) and they do not yet qualify to receive, He sets about preparing them to receive it. He is willing to give. We are not always prepared to receive. Therefore, when He intends to bestow the gift upon the person requesting it, He first prepares the vessel.
We are impatient. We want quickly what can sometimes only be obtained in patience. We are in a rush, but our development requires patience. Some things require time and persistence to prepare us for the blessing we seek. Joseph remarked: “The things of God are of deep import, and time, experience, and careful and ponderous, and solemn thoughts, can only find them out.” This is the way of God. It is adapted to give us what we lack, even if we are unaware of what we lack.
The Father always intends to give to those who ask, seek and knock just as Christ has explained. However, the Father knows “much more” than do we as to how to “give good things to them that ask.” He will not merely give the thing requested. He will add to it such things as are needed to prepare you to receive them.
This, then, is the process: We ask. Without a request, the laws governing things prevent bestowal. We can’t be given until first we ask.
When we have asked, the Father will give. He will give “every good gift” needed, and not just what has been asked. If there is, (as is almost always the case) a gulf between what you have asked of Him, and your capacity to receive it, then He will set about giving you every needful thing to enable you to receive.
If you ask for strength, He will provide you with that experience necessary to develop the strength you seek. If you seek for patience you will be given Divinely ordained experiences by Him that are calculated to develop in you what you have sought. He knows you and knows what you need. Whatever is asked of Him, He will set about to ordain.
It will come in a perfectly natural progression. It will occur in accordance with both natural and eternal law. If you fight against it, you prolong the time when you will receive what you have asked of Him. If you cooperate, it will flow unto you without compulsory means in a natural progression. (D&C 121: 46.)
If you do not ask, it will not be given. If you do not seek, you cannot possibly find. If you are unwilling to knock, the door will remain shut to you. But if you do these things, then you must cooperate with Him as He prepares you to receive what He will bestow.
After asking, seeking and knocking, then a process is invoked in which the Father prepares you to receive. You will receive as soon as He can prepare you by experience, by careful, thoughtful, ponderous thought through time and experiences adapted to give you what is asked. When, at last, you have been adequately prepared, you will have gone through exactly what every other soul before you has experienced to prepare them. There are no shortcuts. There are no exceptions. It is in accordance with laws ordained before the foundation of the world. Everyone who has obtained what you seek will have done so in conformity with the very same laws. The Father will work with you to prepare you to receive what you seek.
This is a reaffirmation by Christ of the process and the Father’s role in bringing it to pass. If you trust Him, trust also His Father’s deliverance of you. You will be delivered. You will receive from Him who knows how to bestow every good gift what you have asked of Him.