TEXT: Matthew 7:7-11

SUBJECT: Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount #19: Ask, Seek, Knock

With these words, the Lord Jesus returns to the subject of prayer. In Chapter Six, He told you to pray with humility and to pray with His interests above your own. Now, He tells you what to do if your prayer isn't answered.

"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".

The key words of v.7 are "ask", "seek", and "knock". Each is in the present tense and describes a continuing action. The Lord Jesus wants you to "pray without ceasing". He assumes that God will not quickly answer every prayer. When He doesn't you must "keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking". You mustn't give up. You mustn't "grow weary in well doing". And more: You must increase your efforts in prayer. Seeking is harder than asking and knocking is harder than seeking. If asking won't suffice, seek; if seeking won't do, knock. If your prayer isn't answered over time, turn up the intensity. "The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much".

The holiest men in the Bible were much given to prayer, intense and prolonged prayer. For forty years Moses prayed for an exasperating people. Daniel outdid him, seventy years praying for an exiled nation. Samuel spent the last years of his life pleading for an apostate king. Need I mention our Lord Jesus Christ? Recall the night He spent in Gethsemane, crying out to God with such feeling that He "sweat great drops of blood". It was not the first time He had repaired to that place. John tells us: "Jesus often met there with His disciples".

To this kind of praying, a promise is attached. "Everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, it will be opened". There isn't a trace of ambiguity in these words. Persistent prayers will be answered. However, when they will be answered is not given. Only that they will be answered.

This brings up a very tough question: What is the object of this prayer?

Some have taken it without qualification. If you ask for anything--anything at all--God will give it to you. Is this what our Lord means? No. Why not? Because some prayers are not acceptable to God. James 4:3: "You ask and do not receive because you ask amiss, that you might consume it upon your lusts". God has promised to not answer some prayers.

Others have been more guarded. If you ask for something good, God will give it to you. This is more sensible than the other prayer, but it too falls a bit short of the mark. Paul prayed for health. Health is good. But God turned him down: "My grace is sufficient for you". Many believers have prayed for a dying loved one--that he would recover or that he would be saved--but neither occurred. Should the believer feel guilty? If only he had prayed more or harder? No.

It is better to understand the promise in its context. Which is the Sermon on the Mount. Hence, when we keep on praying for the character described therein, we will be given that character.

For example: If you "keep on asking" for more love, "it will be given to you". If you "keep on seeking" less worry, you "will find it". If you "keep on knocking" for discernment, it will be "opened to you". The enduring prayer for holiness will be answered.

This is the doctrine our Lord teaches. He illustrates it with a little story, vv.9-10: "Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish will give him a serpent? How many of you father would do that? None of you. No half-way decent father would do such a thing. Why not? Because even relatively "evil" fathers--selfish and thoughtless men--"know how to give good gifts to their children".

And, if ordinary fathers do this, "How much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?" Isn't it obvious? If an earthly father gives his children "good things", will a "Heavenly Father" do less? Of course not! He will do more. Much more. "Exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think".

What are these "good things"? Not everything you ask for, but everything you need to become the kind of person described in the Sermon on the Mount. Luke tells us that these "good things" amount to this: The Holy Spirit.

If you plead for holiness, God will give you an ever-increasing measure of the Holy Spirit to make you holy. To convict you of your sins; to produce a godly sorrow for them; to give repentance; to kindle a love for holiness; to give the power to obtain it.

Have you become tired of praying? Discouraged that your prayers are not answered more often or quickly than they are? If so, remember that God promises no answer to occasional and spasmodic prayers, but only to persistent ones. I pray He would give us the stamina to pray on, for Christ's sake. Amen.