-April 13, 2022-
Good morning, happy Wednesday,
“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 he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”
(Matthew 7:7-8).
Our heavenly Father wants us to come before Him with our needs and requests daily. He never tires of hearing us, nor does He consider it a bother or intrusion. Jesus told us to ask, seek, and knock. The tense in the Greek is has both a present and future tense. The text in verse 7 could be rendered in English as, “Ask, and keep on asking; seek, and keep on seeking; knock, and keep on knocking.”
Jesus tells two parables on perseverance and persistence in prayer. One involves a widow who comes to an unjust judge seeking legal protection. The judge did want to help at first but changed his mind when she kept coming. The other is about a neighbor who came knocking at his neighbor’s door at midnight to ask for bread for a late night visitor. The man was in bed with his family and did not want to get up, but due to the persistence of the one who was in need, he got up and gave him all that he needed. If people give to others in need when they are persistent, how much more will God who loves us and delights to provide for us, give to us freely and abundantly.
James wrote, “…Yet you do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:2b-3). The hymn writer Joseph M. Scriven wrote, “What a Friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear! What a privilege to carry everything to God in prayer! O what peace we often forfeit, O what needless pain we bear, all because we do not carry everything to God in prayer.” When we pray in faith, in Jesus’ name, according to God’s will, with no unconfessed sin, God will hear us and answer our prayers.
There was once a Christian woman who told her friend, “I only pray for something once.” That is so unbiblical. God wants us to pray and keep on praying. We may have to wait for quite a while or God may say no to our request and give us something better. I have seen this in my life and in the lives of other believers. The writer of Hebrews wrote in Hebrews 4:16, “Let us come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”
Let us then come to the Lord for things both great and small, for ourselves and others in need, and keep knocking at heaven’s door. Remember how the servant Rhoda heard a knock at the door where a prayer meeting was taking place for Peter who was imprisoned and about to be killed. An angel delivered him from the prison and she recognized his voice and ran to tell the others present, but they didn’t believe it was really Peter! Then they opened the door when he kept knocking, and sure enough it was him! We need to ask in faith and believe that He we will answer.
Have a blessed day praying and trusting in the Lord. Stay safe and healthy.
In His grace,
Dean
Dean Allen's Daily Devotional 