When I read today’s Scripture, I started to think how much these two verses make God sound like a genie in a bottle, a mighty person who makes our every wish His command.
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)Anyone who has ever prayed knows that no one can tell God what to do and He does it. He is not our slave. But why then did Jesus say these words? Has this given false hope to some who, after asking, seeking and knocking without answers, went away discouraged?
This morning’s newspaper tells of a Christian family on vacation. Their church prayed for them before they left, asking God for a safe journey. The father and daughter were killed in what seems like an unexplainable accident. The mother was asleep and is still alive, but she does not know why their car went through the highway median into the path of a truck. The church spokesperson said that they not only have to deal with this tragedy, but with the question of why God did not answer their prayers.
I relate. I’ve prayed hundreds, maybe thousands of prayers that have not been answered yet. God is either saying No, or Wait. I am sometimes confused as well. Most of my prayers seem to be clearly requests that are in the realm of His revealed will. That is, I am certain He wants the same thing, such as the salvation of souls or a holy and pleasing life for myself and other believers. Yet those souls are still lost and most of us continually struggle with sin.
I know God is not a cosmic genie, nor is He the slave and I am the master. God is God. Part of being a Christian is realizing that this is so. He does what He does and, whether we understand it or not, He has every right and all wisdom to rule the world and our lives in whatever way He knows best.
These verses from Matthew are not a blank check for us to fill in with all those things we want, or cannot find, or wish were opened up to us. Instead, they need to be understood in their context.
In previous verses, Jesus was talking about how Christians can polarize their responses to people who are antagonistic toward Him and toward our faith. He told us not to judge them (we are just as guilty of sin), but also not to treat them as if they were buddies and offer them God’s good news if they are going to reject it anyway.
When I hear these commands, I seriously wonder how I am supposed to respond to people like this. Then Jesus says “ask, seek and knock.” This encouragement about prayer is for me when I am in a situation with another person who stands against what I believe and what the Bible says. In that situation, if I ask God for wisdom, I will receive it. If I seek words to say or correct responses, He will give them to me. If I want doors opened in the form of opportunities to treat this person with Christian love, He will open those doors.
In other words, instead of judging them for their lack of faith or their sins, and instead of trying to overlook what they do and “cast my pearls” only to have them rejected, I am to pray, asking, seeking, knocking. Prayer is the Christian response rather than the polar extremes of rejection and blind acceptance. Jesus then sums it up with the familiar words of verse 12, in the words we have come to call the Golden Rule.
Therefore, whatever you want men to do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 7:12)I want intolerant people who despise Christianity to treat me with respect, not harshly judge me, or worse, treat me as if I am the same as they are. While I know they will not pray for me (because most do not believe God answers prayer), Jesus assures me that my response must be prayer for them and for myself, so I can obey this wonderful rule from the bottom of my heart. It is this kind of praying that He promises will always receive a YES answer.
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