Keep on Asking, Seeking, Knocking

“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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.  Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?  Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?  If you, then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!”  Matthew 7:7-11 (ESV).

Jesus used three strong verbs in this teaching about persistence in prayer:  ask, seek, knock.  And in the Aramaic language in which Jesus spoke, the commands are in the aroist tense, which is more understandably written, “Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.”  By definition, aroist means an inflectional form of a verb which denotes simple occurrence of an action without completion.  In other words, it is an action that continues.  As a substantiation of the admonition of continuing to ask, seek and knock, Jesus gave two parables to undergird persistence in prayer.  One is of the importunate widow as recorded in Luke 18:2-5.  In it a poor widow came repeatedly before a judge to ask for protection against an opponent.  At first the judge was reluctant to make the order necessary for her protection, but because of her insistence, the protection was finally granted.  The second parable is sometimes termed “the three loaves,” or “a friend’s request at midnight.”  This story, recorded in Luke 11:5-8 tells of a friend who, because unexpected guests arrived from a long journey and he did not have bread to feed them, went at midnight insisting that his neighbor share bread.  Because of his insistence, the neighbor got up and gave bread to the one who asked it.  Then Jesus continued in Luke’s account to give the teaching on persistence in prayer:  “Ask, seek, knock.”

God always answers urgent prayer.  But the answer may not come as the asker, seeker, knocker expects.  Just as good, responsible earthly parents seek to give good gifts to their children, sometimes as they, God must be discretionary in His answer.  To grant everything children ask of parents would be what we commonly term “spoiling”  (or over-indulging) them.  This practice is not good in the character-building process, because it teaches children that things come easily and there is no need to work for or wait for results.  To obtain what we ask for, we must first conform our will to God’s will.  Oftentimes in this process of God’s granting our prayers, His answer is even greater and more rewarding than what we asked for in the beginning.  Personal testimony is often helpful to others in showing the truth of scripture.  In retrospect, I remember how God answered prayers of mine so many times in ways beyond what I asked or imagined.  I always liked school and enjoyed studying.  My mother died when I was only fourteen years of age, I had unprecedented responsibility in a farm family to assume duties of housework, cooking, looking after a younger brother.  The tasks seemed formidable and endless, and could I continue my high school education—and even go to college—with the responsibilities that were suddenly upon me?  Not only was I able to continue school, but even the added duties were working to grow me into a resilient and determined person, and at the same time one who daily went to the Lord for needs (and I will admit sometimes petty requests in prayer).  But in God’s omnipotence and omniscience, He answered. These characteristics about my powerful heavenly Father I didn’t know as a teenager, but I was learning about a powerful God who was ever with me. He was laying foundations not only for the immediate accomplishment of high school but of college and graduate school and beyond.  He knows what we need, even before we ask, but like the loving heavenly Father He is, He wants us to keep on asking, seeking, knocking.  He delights in answering our prayers in ways that are always best for us.  God is so good; to God be the glory!