Ask, Seek, Knock

DMLJ: I cannot imagine a better, more cheering or a more comforting statement with which to face the uncertainties and hazards of our life in this world of time than contained in verses 7 – 11.

Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, by D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

Jesus Christ: His Life and Teaching, Vol.2 - The Sermon on the Mount, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev

Matthew7: 7 “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.

Jesus spoke on the topic of prayer several times, including earlier in this Sermon.  In this Sermon, he first taught how not to pray – do not pray like the Pharisees.  He then offered the model prayer – the Lord’s Prayer.  Here He extends something of just how to pray.

Lloyd-Jones offers why he finds this a most comforting statement.  The Bible doesn’t promise a pain free or risk-free life.  Jesus doesn’t promise to remove difficulties and trials; He doesn’t say that He will cut out the thorns and leave us only with roses.

Instead, the Bible emphasizes that what matters is our readiness to deal with whatever comes.  And here, Jesus promises that we will be given what we need if we ask, seek, and knock. 

This is a passage that is easily taken out of context: God is a gift giver – all we have to do is ask.  This is not at all a proper understanding.  Lloyd-Jones offers that this passage cannot be separated from what came immediately before and even after, throughout this entire chapter seven: the issue of judgement.

We are under the judgement of God; everything we do is of tremendous significance.  We must be careful about judging other people – even how we judge them.  We are to remove our beam before extracting our brother’s mote.

In such a condition, we are quite humbled.  Using this Sermon as the yardstick for our judgement, we are humbled to the point of asking: how can anyone live this?  How can I meet such a standard?  And Jesus answers:

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

This is a promise regarding dealing with our judgmental character – in fact, dealing with our desire to live the entire Sermon.  It is a promise made regarding living a triumphant life in Christ.  However, we first must realize our need and, second, realize the riches of grace that are in Christ. 

DMLJ: It is only those who realize these two things who ‘ask’ truly, because it is only the man who says ‘O wretched man that I am’ who seeks for deliverance. 

It is this man who will ask, seek, and knock.  Why three different approaches?  Jesus is demonstrating that we are to show persistence and perseverance.  This is found throughout Scripture and also in the lives of the saints.  We are not to be content with where we are, with passing desires, with our current position.  We are to persist, day by day, in asking for the blessings of the Christian life.

DMLJ: This persistence, this constant desire, asking, seeking, and knocking.  This, we must agree, is the point at which most of us fail.

Elsewhere, Jesus spoke many times of prayer: always pray and do not lose heart; God will avenge those who cry day and night unto Him. 

MHA: In other words, we are called not to simply turn to God with a one-time request; we must “pester” God with our persistent requests until they are fulfilled.

We continue in prayer until we reach a higher level in our spiritual life, then we continue again. 

Matthew 7: 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 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!

We next must realize that God is our Father.  An earthly father offers good things; how much more so our heavenly Father.  Unlike an earthly father, God our Father never makes a mistake.  He knows what is good, and this is what He gives. 

He gives “good things,” as Jesus notes in this verse.  But what are these good things?  We find the answer in Luke:

Luke 11: 13 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

The “good thing” is the Holy Spirit: every fitness, every grace, every gift, all that we require.  This is what we are after when we ask, seek, and knock, and this is what our Father will give us.

DMLJ: Ask for any one of these things that is good for you, that is for the salvation of your soul, your ultimate perfection, anything that brings you nearer to God and enlarges your life and is thoroughly good for you, and He will give it to you.

Anything that sanctifies.

MHA: In the same epistle [First John] we read: “And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us.”

The promise is not regarding prayers for any whim or fancy, but for these good things, for the Holy Spirit to work in us and through us toward God’s will for us. 

Finally…several times in the gospel of John, Jesus instructs the disciples to pray in His name, and if they do so, the prayer will be fulfilled. 

MHA: [Jesus] himself was acting as guarantor that their requests would be fulfilled.

This is the promise Jesus makes. 

Conclusion

MHA: We can formulate certain conditions under which a Christian’s prayer to God the Father would be heard.

Metropolitan Hilarion summarizes: The prayer should be accompanied by a firm faith that God hears it; it should be persistent and sustained; it should be offered in Jesus’ name; finally, whether praying alone or with others, the one praying should do so as a member of a united community.