Matthew 7:7-11 “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.”
Several words begin with the letter “R” that speak about and guide my life: revive, repair, restore, and resolute. After meditating on our scripture for today, I am adding another “R” word: resolve.
Resolve means “to decide firmly on a course of action.” Resolve is exactly the attitude that Matthew 7 is challenging us to have. Resolve brings a radical change in the way we think and in the way we act.
This scripture gives us three steps in the discipline of prayer
Ask, and it will be given to you
Asking makes the request known. Prayer brings to our attention what we recognize as a need. This asking is initiated, hopefully, by the right motives. We are cautioned in Scripture to be careful how we are to approach God in prayer (James 4:2b-3).
Prayer isn’t a way of manipulating God to get what we want. Prayer is an avenue of discovering what God wants for us, for our will to be conformed to His. So, as you approach Him, ask Him what is on His heart for your life.
Seek, and you will find
Seeking is prayer put into action – it’s being deliberate and trying to find out what God wants for us or what we need to do for Him. It’s first searching for our answers in Scripture, taking steps to hear God through His Word (Psalm 119:105).
Seeking the counsel of mature believers is another way of seeking an answer to prayer. There are people you have come to trust in the faith, and you can go to them for counsel. You can seek what God is saying to you through them (Proverbs 18:24; 27:9).
And there is the seeking of Holy Spirit. Have you ever begun to pray and don’t know how to start? Romans 8:26 tells us Holy Spirit “intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words”.
Knock, and it will be opened to you
Knocking suggests a degree of persistence. Be persistent in prayer, understanding that as you have summoned the one on the other side of the door, they are there for you, because the promise has been made that they would be.
Our persistent prayer leads us to discover what God wants for us. Prayer is a progressive experience and developing a relationship with the one who holds the answers to our petitions.
According to E. M. Bounds, “our praying needs to be pressed and pursued with an energy that never tires, a persistency which will not be denied, and a courage which never fails.”
Today, let’s choose to be resolved in our prayer; keep asking until you receive, keep seeking until you find, and keep knocking until the door is opened.
Prayer
Lord, I commit to continually asking, seeking, and knocking. I know You have a great plan, and I stand in the resolve that nothing will move me from my commitment to walk in your way, all the days of my life. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
