Ask and It Shall Be Given

Downloadable Reflection Guide

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. 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!

Ask...seek...knock. This progression in Matthew 7:7 raises the urgency with which we pursue God in our petitions that are a part of our prayer life. Beginning with a simple ask, Jesus moves us forward to seeking. When you seek you are taking much more definitive action than merely asking. Then Jesus asks us to move on to an even stronger posture of directly knocking in order for the door of God’s gracious generosity to be showered upon us.

Now, none of this implies that we will receive everything we ask for. God in His wisdom is not offering us a blank check promise in which He is obliging Himself to indulge our every whim. Instead, we are called to directly petition our heavenly Father and in the process learn more about what He knows we already need through the process of asking, seeking, and knocking. We know with certainty that this verse cannot be used as a pretext to teach that God will give to us anything we ask for when we examine verses 9-11. Here Jesus outlines what it looks like for a good father to give good gifts. With an almost comical twist, Jesus notes that a father is not likely to give his son a stone when he asks for bread, or a serpent when he asks for a fish. Then Jesus drives home His main point about the gracious and good Father we have in God, whose gift-giving wisdom will far exceed any earthly father’s efforts.

This helps us to clearly know that Jesus is not implying that we can ask for and receive anything. We know that at times there are things that we ask for that upon reflection we realize would not be best for us. Jim Carrey in the movie Bruce Almighty demonstrates this when he is given a small sampling of God’s power and responds to the prayers of a small area with a generosity that might seem good on the surface. Bruce grants everyone what they want. At first, people are thrilled, but soon learn that giving everyone what they ask for does not in the end prove beneficial to both them as individuals and the community as a whole. God is far wiser and a far better gift-giver than Bruce, and we should be most thankful for that.

Thoughts for Reflection

What can you ask, seek, and knock from God for as you seek His will in your life?