Ask, Seek, Knock

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened (Matthew 7:7-8).”

Jesus's sermon goes on to talk about what we need.  Our Heavenly Father will give us what we need, but we must ask for it.  Any parent loves to do good things for their children.  But we love it all the more when they ask, especially when they ask nicely, and when they are grateful.  If we, “evil as we are” know how to do good things for our children, how much more this is true with God.  As you may know, the verb tense here is on-going.  Ask and keep on asking.  Seek and keep on seeking.  Knock and keep on knocking.  

How many of us have been in the situation where we pray and pray and pray for God to heal a loved one or act or move in some way that we know would be a “good thing”, and yet we get no answer, or “no” as an answer?  Often, we ask for things we think we deserve, either because others have them or because we have been “so good and faithful” or because God promises to bless us and answer our prayers (which he does).  In reading Tim Keller’s book “Prodigal God” (a fantastic read, one I highly recommend), he makes it clear that the older brother has stayed faithful in order to win God’s favor.  He wants to be able to say that God owes him.   

The danger of that mentality is that, when difficulties in life inevitably arise, we can become resentful of God and especially of whoever had the temerity to cause us difficulties!  This is essentially the test that Job endured.  Will we only accept wealth and riches and blessings from God?  Or do we truly believe that “all things work for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28)”?  

Whatever suffering we might endure, however long we must wait for an answer as we knock and knock and knock, Jesus prayed the most powerful prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane: “Not my will, but yours be done.”  He suffered more than we could possibly comprehend so that we might be forgiven for our sins and have a peace that is beyond anything we could ever imagine.  Learning to trust in God, even when we don’t understand, brings the peace of God which is far better than understanding.  “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:9).”

In that parable of the Prodigal God, Jesus gives a cliffhanger ending.  He never tells whether the older brother comes into God’s celebration feast and accepts God’s forgiveness for his sins.  The younger son’s wasteful lifestyle was obviously wrong and led him far from home.  But the older son’s lifestyle was just as wrong, for he did not love his brother and he did not love his father.  He only obeyed out of fear and in order to inherit what he felt he “deserved”.  Does this sound familiar to you?  It does to me.