Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened.Discover the Context
Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! (Matthew7:7-11)
-Overall context: The author does not identify himself, but his audience is clearly Jewish followers of Christ.
Identify Key Words
The Lord gives three commands followed by three promises: ask, and God will answer; seek and one will find; knock and God will open the door.
SUBJECT
What three promises follow Jesus commands to his disciples to Ask, Seek and Knock?
COMPLEMENT
Jesus tells his disciples that they should ask, and it shall be given to them, seek and they shall find and knock and it shall be opened unto them.
Back to the Basics:
God wants to answer prayer. To illustrate that point, Jesus uses the analogy of a hungry child asking his father for food. The child makes a request. The parent is evil, but out of that evil parent comes a good gift. Why? The parent loves (storge - conditional love) the child and love can bring relative good even from those who are evil.
Now think of God, who is absolute good. Why is it that we think that the God who is righteous, just, and perfect in every way would give us anything less than the best? How could we imagine that He would be less concerned and less gracious with us than we are with our children?
Three Commands for Prayer F.A.B.
Each of the three promises Jesus makes in regard to prayer is conditional. Each is based on our obeying an imperative, a command from the Lord Himself.
1. Ask. Asking is the expression of the desire of the soul. "Be anxious for nothing," Paul wrote to the Philippian believers, "but in everything, by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God" (Philippians 4:6-7).
Sometimes naming our requests to God is easy; sometimes it is impossible. In those times when we do not know what to say, God the Holy Spirit steps in to communicate for us (Romans 8:26). He knows our need. He knows the proper request to make. If we are filled witht he Holy Spirit and have verses stored up in our soul our request should be made in light of where we are in the Plan of God. The requests should always line up with our Spiritual Goals and priorities in this life.
"Ask" here is from the Greek word AITEO and is a Present Active Imperative Verb referring to continuous action in the present time. It is best translated: "make it your habit to ask" (The New Linguistic and Exegetical Key to the Greek NT by Rogers & Rogers, pg. 16). This means that we are to keep on asking; we are to be persistent. But when God answers, will we be listening?
When we ask, it should be because we want answers. If we really want answers, we must study. We should always listen for a correlation between the things we pray for and the things that God talks to us about from the Word. When we study, when we sit in Bible class, we should be alert to the fact that the information we are receiving may in fact be the answer to the things we have asked in prayer.
Lastly, Spiros Zodhiates notes, "It may be significant to note that this verb (aiteo) is never used to charazterize Jesus' request of the Father. Rather, the word erotao is used to inquire, seek, ask a question or interrogate. According to some scholars, the difference between aiteo and erotao is that the former involves the requests of subordinates, whereeas the latter implies more often equality between the persons involved. However, others see the difference in the nature of the action. Aiteo is a request of the will and is used when someone requestgs a certain thing, when a certain object or item is desired by the petitioner. It concerns a request for something to be given, not to be done, and underscores the thing asked for." (Hebrew Greek Key Study Bible, pg. 1579).
2. Seek. Seeking is a step beyond asking. Once we ask, we go looking for the answer. We go in confidence because Jesus Christ Himself promised that God answers and that if we seek we will find.
When we have made a request of God, we must maintain the spiritual desire to obtain the answer. Sometimes, after we pray, the situation we are praying about worsens; it begins to look impossible. God lets that happen often because He wants to know if we believe His promise and are going to follow through.
If we pray for someone else, do we really want that person to obtain what we have asked for? If so, are we willing to seek to fulfill that request ourselves? God does answer prayer, but He most often does it—like all of the other miraculous things He performs—through human flesh, through believers, the hands and feet of Jesus Christ on earth.
When we pray that someone else will be strengthened and then we do not go to strengthen that person, or write a letter, or make a phone call, then we have not sought and our prayer is lazy. When we pray that God will provide for a needy family and we do not give from our store of food or money, then we have not sought and our prayer is lazy. God may answer our prayer, but He will do it through someone else, and we will not be able to enter into the joy and reward of being part of the answer.
A person who wrestles in prayer will never be inactive in life. He will always be involved to the maximum, because he believes in the power of prayer and in the power of God. He believes that if he asks for something, God may choose to use him as the vessel for fulfilling his own prayer.
3. Knock. Knocking means that we labor to see our prayer fulfilled. We can knock in a number of ways. For example, we knock by way of preparation. Are we willing to keep knocking in preparing for God's plan for our life? We knock in regard to pursuit. Do we pursue the fulfillment for what we have asked for and sought? We knock in the area of practical application. We keep knocking and knock more forcefully. Why? Because we really want what we are asking for. Anything in life that comes without persistence is not worth very much.
*The majority of this study is from a 30-tape series in 1988/9 called "The Basics." It was taught by a friend of ours Gene Cunningham from BAISC TRAINING BIBLE MINISTRIES. The additional comments/research added by RBAR.
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