Ask, Seek, Knock

Matthew 7:7-11 

Here our Savior exhorts his disciples (including those who are disciples today) to ask, seek and knock.  With this the promise is made that, “it will be given to you… you will find…it will be opened to you.”  Are we to take this to mean that our Father will give us everything we ask for?  An easy answer would be “No,” but there is no easy answer.

Notice the next verses.  Jesus says God is like a father who gives good things to his son.  The lesson is that, as God’s children, we can expect good things from Him.  No father who loves his children would give them something he knew was not good for them.  Nor would he do for them what they are able to do for themselves.  It is the same with God.

James Coffman says, “This is the Savior's great promise that prayer will be answered, although not always in precisely the manner expected. God answers prayer: (1) gradually, as in the case of Hawthorne's little Ernst in "The Great Stone Face," (2) literally as in the case of Jonah, (3) by denial of the request, as in the case of Paul's thorn in the flesh, (4) by sending something other than was requested as in the case of our Lord's prayer for the cup to pass but which was answered by his receiving strength to drink it, and (5) after delay as in the case of Jairus' prayer for Christ to heal his daughter.”

When we look at it this way it is easier to understand why sometimes it seems as if God is not listening.  Even David, a man after God’s own heart, asked, “Why do you stand afar off, O Lord?  Why do You hide Yourself in times of trouble?” (Psalms 10:1).  We cannot understand the mind of God but we trust in Him and he provides.

Thomas Sneed

Pond Church of Christ