Asking

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. – Matthew 7:7-8

We’re going through Matthew this year in BSF, and lately I’ve been thinking about those verses. There is an element of escalation, from verbal query, to actual quest, to the point of risking disturbance. I can’t remember the last time I actually knocked on a door. These days, you text first, or if the door is closed—the door to a clinic room, to an office—and I don’t have the right to open it without knocking, I assume I need to come back later.

But here Jesus is saying, knock on the door. He is saying something so simple it seems childish. And I think in a way kids get this. I don’t know how many times I’ve thought to myself, wow, they are getting this because they don’t mind asking, and they don’t stop asking. There’s no shame, no shortage of imagination or gumption. I’ve already had a treat, but can I have another one? I know you said no movie, but please? Ten minutes? Okay, then tomorrow for ten minutes?

I immediately thought of all the things I don’t persistently ask for. There are things that fall in the “most important but least urgent” category, like praying for my childrens’ salvation, for their spouses. There are things that are less chronic but also often without immediate results, or often with disappointing results in the past, like praying for specific qualities in my children, for chronic struggles in our marriage, for habitual sins. There are things I don’t pray for because I don’t know to pray for it; because I am not thinking big or deep or wide enough.

So some of it is laziness or lack of insight—but there a lot of things that do weight on my mind. Why am I not persistently praying about those things? Why am I not more like the leper, or the centurion, stopping Jesus amidst the crowd with the confidence of complete faith? Maybe part of it is that I don't really believe there will be an answer, am afraid to risk disappointment. Maybe I don't believe deeply enough in my worth and God's love for me, not enough to have that kind of boldness. Whatever it is, it's probably worth working through, because there is something to the asking. God doesn't just want to give. He wants us to ask. Jesus didn't just heal or change the weather; he looked at people's faith, or lack of it. The way we ask, what we ask for, reveals our hearts, reveals something about our faith and understanding of God, and that is probably just as important as whatever answer it is we are looking for.