Really???

“Ask and it will be given to you;

Seek and you will find;

Knock and the door will be opened to you.”

Matthew 7:7

So, I have a question for you…

When you read that verse, what is your reaction? Honestly. Truthfully.  Are you filled with hope for all that your Heavenly Father is waiting to do for you? Do you feel a warmth come over you knowing that your Protector is ready to shield you from harm? Is there a sense of comfort, knowing that your needs will be met and all will be well in your world?

I wonder if you would be honest enough to admit that, perhaps, in the back of your mind, in a place that nobody is allowed to visit, where the truth shocks even you, you respond to that verse with one word. “Really?” And your tone is skeptical, if not cynical.

Maybe you have prayed for something for months or even years and are still waiting for God to give. Or maybe you have been seeking for what seems to be an eternity and still there is no find. Perhaps you are nursing bloody knuckles from knocking and knocking and knocking and it seems that God just can’t hear you so there is no Divine response.

I hear you. We have probably all been there at one time or another and I don’t have answers for you, just an observation from getting to know the One who does, just a little bit better through the years of seeking, asking and knocking.

First of all, can I just tell you that Matthew, a converted tax-collector-turned-Jesus-follower, was NOT sitting on that mountainside, writing verbatim every word as Jesus spoke it that day. I mean, start in chapter 5 and read the entire “Sermon on the Mount,” as we have come to call it. It is jam packed with nuggets of golden that could each be stretched into volumes of teaching us how to live godly lives. Scholars place the writing of this gospel between 20 and 40 years after Jesus’ crucifixion. I picture Matthew in 65 A.D, writing with great urgency, knowing that he was getting older and that the chance of escaping Roman persecution forever was unlikely, rapidly writing everything he could recall Jesus saying in the few years they had together.

All that to say that verses 7-11 are not the whole story. I am as sure as I can be that Jesus had so much more to say to help His listeners grasp the value of asking, seeking and knocking. Matthew knew exactly what it meant because he heard the whole discourse. He gave us the highlights, knowing the Spirit would come to us, directing us into the whole truth. I believe that. And I also believe that it doesn’t occur as much as it should because we are too busy to sit and listen, meditating on the Word of God. And I am as guilty as the next person, however, as age and health issues have slowed my pace a bit, I am learning to be a better sitter-and-listener. And here is what my heart has heard in the silence…

I am not going to get everything I think I should have, even if my motives are perfectly wholesome and what I want is admirable and will help me help others. Why? Because I cannot see the whole picture of what my story is supposed to be. My story helps to fulfill God’s purpose, and I can’t see that purpose clearly either. In short, I don’t really know what to ask for so often I just plain don’t ask! Because I don’t think it matters… but Jesus said… ASK! So it must matter.  It does matter!

Jesus also told His disciples how they were to pray and in that very prayer, He told them to ask for the Father’s will to be done… perfectly… the very first time, as if we didn’t have a will of our own to mess everything up. Just like it happens in heaven, where the angels do His will without questions, without a selfish thought. He told us to ask for what we need for the day, our daily bread. Not a 5 course meal, but just enough to give us strength for the tasks at hand. We are instructed to ask for forgiveness, because… He knows. And we are to ask for deliverance from the evil that distracts us and will ultimately keep us from asking Him for all of the above.

So ask Him! But make sure that you are asking in alignment with His plan and purpose for our lives. Sometimes those will be specific prayers as He reveals His plan to us and other times (most of the time, perhaps) we simply pray for Him to bring about His plan in our life, whatever that may be, and we will receive it.

But, that’s not the end. Seek and you will find puts us in action mode. He doesn’t just want us to pray and forget, but to pray and act! If you want God’s will to be done in your life, then do what you know to do right now. Be kind. Use wisdom. Show love. Live well. Eat healthy. Exercise. Meditate. Read the Word.

Knock and the door will be open…  Looking back, I see myself as a timid little girl who desperately wanted friends, standing at their door, hoping that my friend would come out at just that time because I was too shy to knock. Pathetic, I know, but that was my childhood. I didn’t want to disturb. I didn’t want to be disappointed if they didn’t want to come out. I didn’t want to be humiliated if they laughed in my face at the thought of stooping to play with the likes of me. So I didn’t knock. And they didn’t come to the door. And I left and went home and played alone. Fear. Low self-worth. They were the enemies of my soul then and sometimes they come back and visit. And I wait for good things to happen without taking the risk of knocking.

Today I will ask for God’s perfect plan for this day to unfold in my life and I will actively look for what He has prepared for me.  I will be brave and knock on the door to see how far we can go together and embrace the adventure that awaits because I believe His way is the way for me. And He will answer. My skepticism and cynicism has been replaced with hope and expectancy because I have watched God work in my life and the lives of others and I know that my way, once I set it down, can be replaced with His way, which may be not at all what I was seeking, but is exactly what my story requires in order to unfold into something beautiful.

I really hope you will join me and ask, seek and don't just stand there... knock!