“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
Matthew 7:7 ESV
Children love to ask their parents for lots of things. Permission, opinions, thoughts, and perhaps the most common money or services (ride to somewhere). But sometimes their parents don’t give the “right” answer. A teenager asks for a car, and Mom and Dad say, if you get a summer job and put all your summer money towards it, we will help pay for the rest. The teenager asked, their parents answered, but it might not be what they were looking for.
I shared this because I believe that this verse is sometimes interpreted as a multiple choice question: God says that I should chose one of these A) Ask; B) Seek; C) Knock. As long as I do one of them, or even 2 of them, I should be good, and God should help me out, and provide what I am looking for.
But I want to suggest that this is not a multiple choice opportunity, but a multifaceted guide for how to handle life and faith. Ask: God wants you to pray, wants you to bring requests to Him regularly, but it doesn’t end there. Seek: Look for God to be at work, look for God’s leading, his answers, his opportunities, or else what you have asked for might be something God is answering, but if you’re not looking you might miss it. Knock: Do something; walk until God closes a door. God doesn’t necessarily say ask and then sit on your hands waiting for me to answer. Perhaps what you are seeking or asking for is something that you can only find or understand once you have traveled to a place that is different from where you are today.
I believe that Jesus’ reminder in this verse is that we need to not just try one or two of these, but live them all out in a variety of circumstances in our lives. Ask, seek, knock, and be ready for God to work, lead and move in your life as he promises in scripture.
Pastor Bill
Discussion Questions
- Which of these is easiest for you: ask, seek, knock? What is the hardest?
- How have you seen God fulfill this promise in your life? Have you ever shared that story of God at work with someone else?