Matthew 7:7-9, 11 – “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what person is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf of bread, will give him a stone?…11 So if you, despite being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”
Here is the greatest invitation of all time! The threefold ‘ask, seek, knock’ are present imperatives in the Greek meaning continuous action. Ask and keep on asking! Here is the recognition of our on-going need for God in all things.
Jesus’ invitation to ‘seek’ echoes the call to ‘seek first’ in 6:33. The antidote to worry from Matthew 6:25-34 is to trust. Put your confidence in God being a good Father who wants to provide for His children’s needs. A parallel passage found in Luke 11:9-13 says, ‘how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?’ Our Father in heaven wants us to seek Him for our physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being.
God is not cashing a blank check in this scripture. When we ask God, God will give us what we need, not necessarily what we want. V. 11 reminds us that we are fundamentally broken people. When we seek Him, we will find what He wants us to find. He knows that apart from Him, we seek things that are not good for us. When we are humbly depending on God, He will also open the right doors for us, while closing the wrong ones.
Continuous prayer brings a state of peace that we are finding what God wants to give us, walking through doors that He has opened for us because we ask. “You have not, because you ask not.” – James 4:2-3
Heavenly Father, our Lord Jesus Christ, we thank you for the reminder that you want an intimate relationship through prayer. We thank you for your assurance that we will get answers in our best interest as we continually pray. Holy Spirit, help us to be devoted to prayer with great expectation that Jesus cannot lie. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.