Am
I Satisfied With Asking When I Am Supposed to Knock?
“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.”
Matthew
7:7-8
William
Wilberforce, English politician, philanthropist and a leader of the movement to
stop the slave trade, was discouraged one night in the early 1790’s after
another defeat in his ten-year battle against the slave trade in England. Tired
and frustrated, he opened his Bible and began to go through it. A small piece
of paper fell out and fluttered to the floor. It was a letter written by John
Wesley shortly before his death. Wilberforce read it again: “Unless the divine power has raised you up….
I see not how you can go through your glorious enterprise in opposing that (abominable
practice of slavery), which is the scandal of religion, of England, and of
human nature. Unless God has raised you up for this very thing, you will be worn
out by the opposition of men and devils. But if God be for you, who can be
against you? Are all of them together stronger than God. Oh, be not weary of
well-doing. Go in the name of God, and in the power of His might.”
Some
people think verse 7 is a blank check. Is it really? Verse 8 says that for
everyone that asks receives and everyone that seeks finds and to him that
knocks it shall be opened. Is it that simple? I don’t think so.
These
verses are not blank cheques. There are certain conditions that Jesus has already
mentioned in the Sermon he was delivering. So we need to consider this verse in
purview of the whole of the Sermon on the Mount. This becomes a blank cheque when
the conditions are right. Which means that we are His obedient child and we ask
according to His will, in order that He may be glorified.
When
we look at the verse we can notice that it’s not that simple. There is progression
and perseverance involved in it. We need to keep on asking, keep on seeking and
keep on knocking.
Asking
is very simple. Every child does that. But there is no involvement and
participation. We just ask. Seek on the other hand is stronger than just
asking. There’s a participation in it. It can be said that at least we are
moving our eyes to seek. But when it comes to knocking there’s a greater
participation.
For
example, I cannot just sit at my home and say, “Lord, I want to preach a great
sermon this coming Sunday. Please, I ask you, give me a great sermon.” Just by
simply asking I won’t be able to deliver a sermon. What I have to do is that I have
to ask the Lord all week for that and then I seek that by going through the
Word of God and reading and reading. And then I begin banging on the Lord, on
most occasions this happens on Saturday night saying, “Lord, I’m struggling
with this portion and I want to understand it.” I realize that God is the only
one who can produce through me, but at the same time, I have got to be involved
in the process.
Why
does God want us to be involved in this fashion? Is it because he loves seeing his
creation banging for certain things? I don’t think that we have to bang to get
God to act, but the more we are involved in the process, the greater the
relationship becomes. The deeper, the richer and the more meaningful communion I
can have with Him.
Let
us pray – Dear Lord, help us to have the attitude of perseverance when it comes
to having a relationship with You. Amen.
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