Matthew 7:7-12 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 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! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Often the above verses are used as a “get out of jail” or a “help me, Lord” card. Sadly, these verses are used as a reason to disbelieve the word of the Lord. For one reason or another people feel God did not come through when they desired him to do so. They asked but did not receive, or they might have known a needy person or a lovely young child who asked for something good and found no answer. When we use these verses inappropriately to meet the problems and desires of life, we become mystical, looking to receive the right card from the hand of the sorcerer. Christians have a relationship with God and a voice within them that says, I am the God who fights for you as you endure this wilderness journey. He is in us, not apart from us. We should ask believing, but trusting God as the final authority and director of our lives as we are faithful to him. Paul wrote, I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. (Philippians 4:11) Not easily said when you have been beaten with rods or stoned or thrown in prison—no peace or earthly solutions in those situations. Sometimes life becomes difficult, shrouded with troubles and struggles, but many days bring successes and smiles. Jesus performed many miracles during his ministry, separating him from all other humans who ever walked this earth. But Jesus did not spare his disciples or the church from hardships and trials, or unimaginable cruelties: devoured by animals, roasted over fires, impelled to walls, buried in pits, and the like. The church of the living God has always experienced great persecution and always will struggle mightily because those who live in darkness despise the Good News. They hated Jesus and they hate us too when we talk about the cross and the resurrection, the need for repentance and faith in the works of Jesus. In today’s verses from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus presents the Jewish people as well as us with a positive assumption: Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 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! Jesus knows they are evil because they are not like God. He told the rich young man not to call him good because only God is good. Human nature is not basically good: a contamination exists deep within human souls as Paul reveals his human nature when he says, I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. (Romans 7:15) But Jesus tells the Jewish people that their natural reaction to their children is to do good to them. How much more does the Good Father of all creation want to please his children. Then why not use God’s goodness for our own benefit; to satisfy our needs and wants? But Jesus’ sermon is focused on the eternal. God will give everything to his children for their good if they will only ask. He will remove the plank in their eyes. He will allow them to live purposeful lives if they ask for his direction, his leading in their lives. The end of these verses sums up what people will be like if they ask and seek appropriately: So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets. Believers will express God, to be as he is, if their desires are to please him. Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. This verse fits well between the verses of removing the plank in your own eyes and the way to God is narrow, revealing the need of God’s involvement in every part of our lives. It is not a verse for escapism or easy solutions, but a verse for direction and dependency on our Father in heaven who knows what we need.
Jesus amazes his listeners because He speaks as a man with authority, not as the priests who advise them from their learned perspective of the law. Jesus seems to have the power to support all that He says. Of course, they were listening to a man full of the Holy Spirit. Jesus proves this power, this authority to fulfill what He is saying, as soon as He leaves the mountain. When Jesus came down from the mountainside, large crowds followed him. A man with leprosy came and knelt before him and said, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.” Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. (Matthew 8:1-3) This act, after his teaching on the mountainside, confirms his divine nature, for He could not have cured this man if God was not in his life through the indwelling Holy Spirit. He was willing to cleanse this man of leprosy. God is willing to cleanse the hearts of men. If we ask, we will receive. If we seek, we will find, for He is a Good Father. We are being prepared in this wilderness to live eternally with the Father. Not by our works but by the works of God through the works of the Lord Jesus on Earth. We are in every sense of the word, God’s own, and God fights for us. He fights for our spiritual survival, for we have an eternal destiny to be in the Father’s house forever. God does not stand aloof from us as a great clock master, winding us up and then observing how the clock runs. No, God is in the creative business all of the time. He is actively involved with us, for He has sent his Holy Spirit to be resident in us. Consequently, every day He is communing with us, fulfilling our requests to live for him. What then about miracles? What about solutions in our lives? He is the great miracle worker, the mountain mover! First of all, He does miracles in our lives, for He watches over us; He is the great designer of righteousness through our faith in him and his words. Within us He has placed a new creation. Our eternal souls are perfect, for we have died to ourselves, and we are HIDDEN WITH CHRIST IN GOD. (Colossians 3:3) Our perfection rests in the Great Designer’s work. But this does not mean the outer part, the peripheral part of our lives, does not do wrong or disappoint the goodness of God. But that holy vibrating entity of Goodness, our eternal souls, is within us, protected by the miracle working God in our wilderness lives. Our souls are new creations but our flesh until its demise will alway be with us to hinder the walk of righteousness. Struggling for existence, desiring significance in the world, hoping for riches and security will always cause the flesh problems, sometimes cutting corners of righteousness to achieve the wants and desires of the flesh. Man can become very violent and deceiving to achieve what he desires out of life. Sin can crop out so easily in fleshly endeavors. But our spirits are in God’s domain: the Lord Jesus. Consequently, we ask and seek the answers to our spiritual lives rather than our fleshly lives. God is a good father, He will come to our aid in developing us into maturity. We should ask for God’s protection, seek his love, carry out his mission in our lives. This teaching of asking, seeking, and knocking culminates with Jesus saying, in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you.
There is nothing wrong in asking and seeking God for help, solutions, directions, healing, miracles. He is involved with all of those things as we walk through the wilderness. But sometimes we do not ask for the perfect will of God: we do not say, Your will be done, not mine. The Bible says, When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. (James 4:3) The Children of Israel felt God’s miraculous presence with them as they walked through the wilderness. God performed many miracles for them, yet they also faced the judgment and discipline of God at times. God is also with us Christians, but his presence is internal, in the place of holiness, purchased by the blood of Jesus. We walk with the voice of God in us. As with Jacob our names have been changed to God Fights; He fights for us, for our survival in this life. We are destined to be with him for eternity. Our walk of faith often needs strengthening, even daily. We commune with God through prayer, just as the apostles prayed often and intensely. Before Paul and Barnabas were separated from the believers in Athens, the brethren prayed and fasted for several days. God directed them to send Paul and Barnabas off to their first missionary journey. We must be just as sincere with God in everything we do. We ask, seek, and knock in faith. Faith demands action. Inert belief is not faith. Faith is stepping out. Ask, seek, knock and move is God’s plan for his children in this wilderness. He will move mountains when we do what He has asked us to do. He will make the barren fig tree fruitful in all seasons if we follow his directions. He will make us fruitful, for God is a good Father. The Holy Spirit leads us as surely as He led the Children of Israel with a cloud by day and a fire by night. We are God’s children, born out of Egypt, the land of slavery. Our journey is often difficult and sometimes hard to endure, but the Bible says, endure to the end, for our salvation will be completely realized when this flesh is put away for good. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Peter 1:1-5) Brethren, seek and ask for everything that is good and healthy for the soul. Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.
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