Ask, Seek, Knock

Matthew 7:7-8 Keep asking, and it will be give to you. Keep searching, and you will find. Keep knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches finds, and to the one who knocks the door will be opened.

How many times have you been praying and thought that what you wanted was just not big enough to bother God Or how many times have you prayed for something really big only to give up because you didn't get the answer you wanted right away? Well both of these scenarios are addressed in this passage; Jesus tells us that we are to ask, to seek, and to knock.

The first thing I thought of as I read this passage was Jeremiah 29:13 "You will seek Me and find Me when you search for me with all of your heart." Do we seek God like this; with our whole heart? How much better would our lives be if we sought Him with the same passion and commitment that we go after other things?

The three words used here are important, we ask for what we want, we seek what we are missing, and we knock when we feel we have been shut out. We are to ask, and keep on asking. We are to seek, and keep seeking. We are to knock, and knock, and knock... Why are we to do this? Because the goal of prayer is not to get stuff that we can use on our own sinful desires; the goal of prayer is to get God, and by asking, and seeking, and knocking, we are allowing God, through His Holy Spirit, to shape our thoughts, to invade our attitudes, and to make His will our will. This is why the apostle John said, "This is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked from Him." (1 John 5:14-15 NASB) The act of praying conforms our will to His will, and when we asking God for His will, He will answer.

Is there something that you need from God today? Ask Him. He delights in giving good gifts to His children. This passage goes on to say that if we who are evil know how to give good gifts to our children, how much more will our Father in heaven give good gifts to us when we ask Him. James tells us that every good and perfect gift is from God (James 1:17) and that we don't have because we don't ask (James 4:2). Jesus is inviting us to ask Him for what we want, to seek Him, and to knock persistently. You just may find in the process that what you really wanted was there all the time just waiting for you to ask.; you may find that what you needed was not more stuff, but God Himself.

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