#144: To Pray... (Part 5): A.S.K

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Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. Everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who searches will find. And the door will be opened for everyone who knocks.  Would any of you give your hungry child a stone, if the child asked for some bread? Would you give your child a snake if the child asked for a fish? As bad as you are, you still know how to give good gifts to your children. But your heavenly Father is even more ready to give good things to people who ask. Matthew 7:7‭-‬11 CEV.

By God's grace we will conclude the series today with this profound infinite and magnificent display of  love and benevolence by God in the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:7-11. In these 5 verses we can find perhaps the most assuring invitation from God to pray. May God grant us insight as we dive in and take a brief study. Amen.

Action and Reaction: 3 times Our LORD invites us to pray in this bible text (Ask, Seek/Search, Knock). This is an eye opener to what we do when we are praying. What is more fascinating is that Jesus quickly follows the invitation with the benefits. He does this twice in succession as if to lay emphasis on the assurance He is giving us. Vs. 8 says everyone who... I know God not to be a politician; He doesn't talk except there is a need, and definitely does not use careless words. So, that word "everyone" is something to hold on to. If God says everyone, then I am inclusive, and you are inclusive. The benefit of asking is that you receive; the benefit of seeking is that you will find and the benefit of knocking is that the door will be opened to you. This applies to everyone. And in the place of prayer. It is an action-reaction scenario.
What does this mean for us? When we come to the place of prayer and we are asking, we should not doubt (James 1:6-8). We should actually come asking intending to receive. If you come doubting, why did you ask in the first place? Did you not know that everyone who asks receives? This also means that many blessings skip us and rightly so because we have not asked. There are a lot of things God wants to give us, He only requires that you consciously ask...

God is good: Jesus spends vs 9&10 giving an illustration with our earthly relationship with our parents or children as the case may be and we can all agree that no father will give his son stone when he asks for bread and no father would give his son snake when he asks for fish. Then Jesus takes it even further in vs 11 to crown it all up. We do this to our children, yet we are wicked/bad/evil. And so it is mind blowing that when you realise that God is good and He is your Father [in heaven], So, beyond the confidence you have in your parents when it is time to make requests, if we can be confident in evil men, how much more confident can we be in a good God? By this statement, Jesus builds on the confidence that He already laid in the previous verses.

He gives good things: This is usually the most disturbing part of prayer life. What God gives (what we receive from God). So, we build from the previous point - that God is good; and He will not give you stone when you ask for bread, neither will He give you snake when you ask for fish, but beyond that, everything He gives you is good. Everything God gives you is what is best for you (Isaiah 48:17; Psalms 32:8). We several times have misgivings about this because we expect to be given bread when we ask for bread. But even our earthly parents will not always give us bread when we ask for bread; we are sure that we will never receive a stone, but we will not always be given the bread we want, and every parent will justify this by saying, "we know what is best for you and we are giving that to you"
God being a good God always gives us good things. From today, accept everything the LORD gives you as the good and perfect gift (James 1:17). This will definitely need a renewal of our minds and the Holy Spirit is here to help us in that aspect as we surrender our will to Him.

Thought: ...yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts. (James 4:2-3)
Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete. (John 16:24)

Further Reading: Before Asking

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