I've been thinking about the various attributes of God that sometimes function as a kind of name for God, and one that came up is that God is a Giver. Maybe with Thanksgiving on the horizon, that struck me.
When people think of God as a giver, and think of actually praying for specific things, this is sometimes derided as reducing God to a heavenly vending machine. You pop in prayer, and he pops out stuff, and if the stuff doesn't arrive, then maybe it's a stuck vending machine, or you didn't add enough faith or something like that.
We think of the old Janis Joplin song, "O God, won't you buy me a Mercedes-Benz? My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends. O God, won't you buy me a Mercedes-Benz?" And we are (rightfully, I think) scornful of the materialism derided in that song. But it is not the case that the only good prayers are exclusively spiritual. We are commanded to ask for our daily bread. And Jesus expected tax money to be given to him, and provided miraculous catches of fish.
When I started meditating on some of these scriptures, I was somewhat surprised to find that the verse I was familiar with as "Every good and perfect gift is from above..." was actually about giving as well as gifts. In time, that yielded a song.
"All generous giving and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or the slightest hint of change. By his sovereign plan he gave us birth through the message. of truth, that we would be a kind of first fruits of all creation." (James 1:17-8 NET)
“Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 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 the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:11-13 NIV)
All Good Gifts
