Further Instructions from the Mount - Pt 5

 

[Jesus said] “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. [9] Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? If you then, who are 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!” (Matthew 7:7–11 ESV).

 

Our reading today must be taken in the context of the previous two instructions. Remember Jesus said that we ought to be very careful in our judgment of others. In fact, He says we are not to judge at all. However, then He says we are discern the kind of people we share the wisdom of God with, “Don’t cast your pearls before swine, don’t give what is holy to dogs” (v. 6). The conundrum is in how to do that. I wrote a bit about that in the previous two devotionals; however, today we have a much more definitive answer. Jesus tells us to “ask, seek, and knock.” We do not have the necessary wisdom in ourselves to be able to rightly discern the heart of others. Prayer is the answer.  

 

So, Jesus teaches about prayer and encourages persistence through the commands to "ask, seek, and knock." He reassures followers that, just as a loving earthly father gives good things rather than harmful objects, God the Father will generously and lovingly answer the prayers of His children. Because living out these teachings—such as loving your enemies, forgiving others, and avoiding hypocrisy—is humanly impossible in one's own strength, Jesus teaches that believers must continually turn to God for help, wisdom, and inner transformation.

 

The verbs "ask," "seek," and "knock" are continuous in the original Greek, indicating a steadfast, active pursuit of God and His will. It is a call to draw near to God with your needs, actively search for His ways, and persistently wait at His door. Asking is the basic level of making requests. Seeking implies a greater investment of time and effort to find God's truth, while knocking indicates knocking on the door to enter into His presence.

 

Then Jesus uses the illustration of an earthly father. If a hungry child asks for bread or a fish, a loving father wouldn't maliciously hand them a stone or a snake. Jesus reasons that if imperfect, sinful humans know how to give good gifts, "how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!" This does not mean that God is a vending machine, nor that we have a "blank check" to ask for anything we want with the guarantee that God will grant it. God’s definition of a "good gift" may differ from human desires. He promises to provide exactly what is best for a believer's spiritual growth and will never grant a request that is ultimately harmful to His children.

 

I like what John Piper says about this:

 

“When you pause to consider that God is infinitely strong and can do all that he pleases, and that he is infinitely righteous so that he only does what is right, and that he is infinitely good so that everything he does is perfectly good, and that he is infinitely wise so that he always knows perfectly what is right and good, and that he is infinitely loving so that in all his strength and righteousness and goodness and wisdom he raises the eternal joy of his loved ones as high as it can be raised — when you pause to consider this, then the lavish invitations of this God to ask him for good things, with the promise that he will give them, is unimaginably wonderful.”

 

So, ask, seek, and knock as often as you want. Be persistent. Then trust God’s goodness to provide exactly what is best.