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.
Which of you, if your 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!
— Matthew 7:7-11
Following the Call—Chap. 46: Ask, Seek, Knock
A dangerous promise. Good gifts for the asking. Your turn.
Let us seek, not only just in our seasons of prayer, but at all times, to hold fast the joyful assurance: our prayer on earth and God’s answer in heaven are meant for each other.
— Andrew Murray
A Dangerous Promise
If taken out of context, this saying of Jesus can be dangerous. First, one can be tempted to believe that God answers our prayers on the basis of how intensely we pray. Asking is simple, seeking takes more effort, and knocking more effort still. But this reading misses Jesus’ main point. The three verbs Jesus uses here are simply interchangeable terms for prayer. They are not only emphatic but in the present tense. Jesus is stressing that we are to pray constantly. We are to ask, seek, knock, and keep on doing so. We are to be a praying people; prayer should be the lifeblood that flows through our spiritual veins. God wants faithfulness, not intensity. Otherwise, he surely would have granted Jesus’ prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane.
The second temptation is to think that prayer works—that God acts because we pray, and that our failure to pray is what hinders God from acting. Again, this misconstrues what prayer is about. Prayer is a means by which we communicate and commune with God. God alone has the power to fulfill his purposes. Jesus’ disciples prayed but did not get what they wanted (Matt. 14:22-33; 17:14-21). Jesus experienced the same (Matt. 26:39). Prayer itself has no power. Only God, to whom we pray, has the power and the final say. Prayer is important, but lest we forget, God often acts without our ever asking. One need only recall Paul’s conversion.
A third temptation is to think of prayer in terms of begging a reluctant or stingy God for something. But Jesus puts this misguided notion to rest when he compares our Father in heaven to our earthly fathers. “How much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!” God is neither distant nor uncaring. He gives generously, as the apostle James says, without finding fault (James 1:5). And he not only gives generously but he gives good gifts. Thus the writer of Hebrews says that we can “approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Heb. 4:16).
Lastly, it is tempting to believe that if God doesn’t answer our prayers something must be wrong with us. True, we may not be asking rightly or in accordance with God’s will. We may lack the faith that God will actually grant our requests. We may not even be ready to receive what it is that God wants. But who of us ever prays well, let alone perfectly? Who of us is ever worthy of God or ready to do his bidding?
Even so, Jesus invites us to keep asking, seeking, knocking, all because our heavenly Father is good and desires that we come to him. “It is in prayer and its answer that the interchange of love between the father and his child takes place,” writes Andrew Murray. A yearning for God to act is often enough; God who makes himself known and gives us what we need.
Good Gifts for the Asking
God answers our prayers, Jesus says, by giving us “good gifts.” He gives what he knows is good for us. Surely these things are related to God’s kingdom, which we are to seek above all else. When we pray, therefore, our prayers should be kingdom prayers. D. A. Carson writes:
The kingdom of heaven requires poverty of spirit, purity of heart, truth, compassion, a nonretaliatory spirit, a life of integrity; and we lack all of these things. Then let us ask for them! Are you as holy, as meek, as truthful, as loving, as pure, as obedient to God as you would like to be? Then ask him for grace that these virtues may multiply in your life. Such asking, when sincere and humble, is already a step of repentance and faith. (The Sermon on the Mount: An Evangelical Exposition)
Luke records Jesus as referring to the Holy Spirit instead of “good gifts”: “How much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:13). Isn’t this our greatest need and the greatest gift we could ask for, that we would be filled with the presence and power of the Holy Spirit? E. Stanley Jones puts it this way:
I cannot imagine that Jesus, whose coming was specifically to baptize with the Holy Spirit, would lay before us the amazing charter of the new life and then fail to mention the one power that could make the whole possible, namely, the power of the Holy Spirit. It is unthinkable. After all, isn’t the difference in the spiritual lives of people just the difference between “good things” and the “the Holy Spirit”? Some want “good things” in religion—inspiration, ideals, guidance, forgiveness, and so on—and are content with them…. Goodness is not possible except we come into vital and immediate contact with the source of goodness—God. (A Working Philosophy of Life)
Meister Eckhart writes, “God never gives, nor did he ever give a gift, merely that we might have it and be content with it. No, all gifts which he ever gave, he gave with one sole purpose—to make one single gift: himself.” In our asking, seeking, and knocking let’s not forget this. God wants to give us himself first and foremost. Whatever else we may ask for, this is the greatest gift. It is God’s promise when we persist in prayer.
Your Turn
What does asking, seeking, and knocking mean to you? Just reply to this email to leave a comment.
Yes prayer 🙏🙏🙏 work
Yes prayer do work