Ask, Seek and Knock! A Recipe for A Great Prayer Life! Matthew 7:7-12

 Ask, Seek, Knock

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Jesus now turns again  to the subject of "prayer".  The fact that he had already addressed it in chapter 6 shows the importance of prayer.  Remember Jesus assumed they would pray when he said, "This then is how you should pray."  Jesus gives further instruction using this threefold model of asking, seeking and knocking. 

You will notice a progressive an in these three steps.  We also see different aspects of prayer and different types of rewards.

Asking -  This is what we normally think of with prayer.  It is rather simple.  Ask and then receive.  Receiving is the reward asking.  The bible says, "we have not becasue we ask not!"  James 4:2

Seeking - A more intentional step of prayer is seeking.  We seek God's will. We seek guidance from the bible.   We seek prayers from others and from the church. We seek the Holy Spirit to give us the right words and motives when we prayer.  

Knocking - This next progress in "knocking". There is a sense in which knocking on the door comes as a result of resistance.  "After all if a door is open, there is no need for us to knock." (Guzik) 

Sometimes when we knock on a door no one answers.  It may cause us to come back and knock again.  God rewards persistance in prayer.  See the parable of the persistent widow. Luke 18:1-8 In our persistance we deepen our reliance  and faith in God.   

There are some things I have been knocking on the door in prayer for my whole life and the door has not yet been opened. But I won't stop knocking until that door is opened because in this instance if is something that is God's known will. 

Asking, seeking and knocking is a great way to look at deepening one's prayer life.  Like reading the bible, prayer is discipline we will grow into our whole lives.  At its heart, prayer is how we relate to God and express our needs and desires to him.  It is no secret that many of our prayers go unanswered.  If God gave us everything we wanted, every time we prayed it would not allow us to go deeper in prayer and in trust in God's provision for us. 

9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 

Though asking, seeking and knocking is a progression of prayer, it is doesn't mean that God is miserly toward prayer.  Jesus uses the analogy of bread and fish to show that prayer is not mechanistic, but a relationship like that of a parent with a son or daughter.  No parent would intentionally give their child the opposite of what they are asking just to spite them.   

God does not give begrudingly give answers to prayer, but like a parent loves to reward us with gifts appropriate for the situation.  Bread and fish were basic staples of life for a person in Jesus' day.  Bread gave the people carbs, and fish protein!  

11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! 

Though Jesus gives the disciples a lot of instruction on prayer, he closes with that fact that God the Father LOVES to give good gifts to His children.  At the heart of God's character is grace, love and mercy.  One day we will see just how many prayers God has answers and we will realize God's level at a whole deeper level.  

12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

Verse 12 closes out the teaching Jesus has done from Mathtew 6:1 - 7:11.  Jesus has covered a myriad of subjects like: giving, prayer, fasting, treasures, worry, judging and now prayer again.  Verse 12 give this overall principle of this teaching.  The bottom line is that as we treat others how we would like to be treated treating we can never go astray and we fulfill the spirit of all of God's commands.  

How is your prayer life?  Can you see the stages of asking, seeking and knocking in your prayer life?  When you face resistance in prayer, or fail to see God answering your prayers, how do you usually react?  Have unanswered prayers in your life caused you to seek God in a deeper way?   How often do you take time to thank God for the prayers he HAS answered?