WHAT DO YOU EXPECT WHEN YOU ASK, SEEK AND KNOCK?

Can I pray for you in any way? Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com In Christ, Mark

The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

“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; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”

"Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 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 good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”

Matthew 7:7-12

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Today’s passage is one of the better known from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount.

It’s also one of the most misinterpreted.

Why?

Because the believer who only reads this passage and not others that expound on it will get the impression that the Father is so benevolent that we need only ask, seek and knock and we’ll get from Him our hearts desires. In other words, if we want it, ask for it, knock on His door in heaven and seek His help, He’ll automatically grant our wish and give us what we want. If that were true, I think every man, woman and child on earth would be a believer.

But it doesn’t quite happen like that, does it?

Unfortunately, because people don’t understand the real truth when it comes to asking and receiving from the Father, so many tend to stop believing when they don’t get their own way. They would feel like…I asked…I knocked…I sought the Lord, telling Him everything I needed…and He did nothing. So He obviously doesn’t care about me and the bible isn’t true.

In other words, people adopt a fast food approach to their faith all too often.

“I want it Lord and I want it now. I’ll order at the window and drive up so you can give me my order.”

Maybe this fits you…or maybe someone you know.

So how does the Father handle our requests when we knock, ask and seek?

We need to look at a second passage for that answer. Turn to 1 John 5:14-15 where God’s word tells us this:

“This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us—whatever we ask—we know that we have what we asked of him.”

OK…now we are getting somewhere.

For if we’re going to have any confidence that the Lord will consider giving us what we ask of Him, then we had better do one important thing before we ask.

We had better seek His will first.

You see, the Lord is not going to give us anything that isn’t in His will for us. This is where the conflict arises because our wants and God’s will for us are so often two very different things.

Let’s say I have cancer. I might ask the Lord to rescue me from the disease and preserve my life. But maybe the Father has determined that my time has come to leave this world for a better one He has prepared for me.

Maybe I am in financial difficulties and am asking the Lord to remove my debt. But maybe the Father is trying to teach me better money management and so His will is for me to remain in debt for a little while longer so he can help me grow wiser and more responsible.

Maybe I’m having problems in my relationship and I feel like I just can’t stay married to my spouse anymore so I pray that the Father grant me the way to a divorce. But maybe, just maybe, the Lord doesn’t want me to divorce but rather work through the problems and differences in the spirit of salvaging my marriage.

You get the point. The first step to discovering what the Father really wants to give us is to seek His will. For then…and only then, can we know what to ask for and know in confidence that He will provide

With this, it’s fitting to end with the opening words of the Lord’s Prayer:

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Yes Lord…Your will be done in our lives.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it.

Send any prayer requests to faithhopegodlove@aol.com