“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 ESV1
Read Matthew 7:7-11 & Luke 11:9-13
These words on prayer were spoken by Jesus to the dedicated followers who had joined Him on the mountainside. They apply to those disciples as much as they apply to Christ-followers today. Jesus is very clear in this passage that God most definitely with absolute certainty answers prayer, but that may not be our daily experience. Let’s explore why.
There are prerequisites for answered prayer:
Believing God is good
Believing the truth of God’s goodness is the basis of all prayer. If one does not believe God is good, asking anything of Him will be, at best, a gamble. Simply put, God is good because He says over and over in His Word that He is good. A few examples are: “The LORD is good to all; He has compassion on all He has made” (Psalm 145:9). “Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good; His love endures forever” (Psalm 107:1). “You [God] are good, and what You do is good” (Psalm 119:86). God is good because that is His nature. He proves over and over that He is good. This is truth, truth which must be believed for much of the Christian life to make sense. Jesus was relying on the assumption that His audience believed in the goodness of God when He said, “‘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 7:11).
Being a child of God
God has been known to graciously answer the prayers of those who are not yet His children, but those blessings are given to draw the Lost to Him. Jesus came to allow humans to become children of God. “‘For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life’” (John 3:16). “He came to His own, and His own people did not receive Him. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God” (John 1:12). “For in Christ Jesus, you are all sons of God through faith.” (Galatians 3:26). “For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God … The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God” (Romans 8:14 & 16). Have you accepted from Jesus this opportunity?
Being a good child of God
God delights in answering the prayers of His good children. God’s good children abide in (remain with, stay with) Christ. “‘If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you’” (John 15:7). God’s good children are full of faith. “‘Whatever you ask in prayer, you will receive it, if you have faith’” (Matthew 21:22). “‘Whatever you ask in prayer, believe you have received it, and it will be yours’” (Mark 11:24). God’s good children are in agreement with His other children. “‘If two of you agree on Earth about anything [you] ask, it will be done for [you] by My Father in Heaven. For where two or three are gathered in My name; there I am among them’” (Matthew 18:19-20). God’s good children keep His commandments. “Whatever we ask we receive from Him because we keep His commandments and do what pleases Him” (1 John 3:22). God sometimes answers the prayers of those who are not currently His good children, but He does so in hopes of drawing them closer to Him, helping them to become His good children.
Asking for a good thing
Is what you want in line with God’s will? “And this is the confidence that we have toward Him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us” (1 John 5:14). Is your desire for God’s glory? “‘Whatever you ask in My name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son” (John 14:13). Is the thing for which you ask for the completion of God’s work? “‘You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit and that your fruit should abide, so that whatever you ask the Father in My name, He may give it to you’” (John 15:16). Is what you are asking something to which Jesus could sign His Name? “‘If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it’” (John 14:14). “‘Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you … Ask, and you will receive’” (John 16:23-24).
Before you say, “That’s not fair. God only answers prayers that are about Him,” look at the rest of John 16:24, “‘that your joy may be full.’” There are lots of requests which may not specifically fit into any of these categories, but we were created glorify God; “we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we may walk in them” (Ephesians 2:10). When we are doing that for which God created us, we are most happy.
A good child asking for a good thing from a Good Father should always have an affirmative answer.
But what if you are a good child asking for a good thing, yet it looks as if your prayers are not being answered?
Are you really asking for anything?
One can spend hours in prayer and get up from his/her knees no more at peace when he/she knelt. Why is that? Because he/she hasn’t asked for anything; he/she has only spent time worrying before God. For instance, don’t pray for God to be with your sister’s family when her husband is unemployed. Jesus has already promised, “‘I will never leave you nor forsake you’” (Hebrews 13:5). Pray for something that can be measured. Pray for a job for your brother-in-law.
Are you really believing?
“Let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways” (James 1:6-8). There is no sense asking if you don’t believe God will answer you anyway. Believing is sometimes hard, but don’t forget, you can pray, “Help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).
Why are you asking?
“You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions” (James 4:3). God is not going to answer stupid, selfish, and senseless prayers. He will not give you something which is not good for you, nor will He answer a prayer that puts others in jeopardy. (If you are asking for something that would hurt you or others, you aren’t really asking for a good thing!)
Do you really want it?
Sometimes we ask for things which are just passing thoughts, things we don’t really want or need. The things we really want are the things that keep coming up, and we will keep asking for them. “[Jesus] told a parable to the effect that [you] ought always to pray and not lose heart” (Luke 18:1). Check out the parable at Luke 18:1-8. Don’t give up before you see the answer. Often it takes time for all of the pieces to fall into place. As in the example above, there could be something God would like your brother-in-law to learn during this time. Maybe the position God has planned for him isn’t open yet. Perhaps this job will involve a move; houses need to be found, bought, or sold. Possibly there are others who are not yet available who will connect him with this job. Maybe God would like you to share something with your sister’s family in the meantime. All these take time. God is most definitely answering your prayer though it might not feel like it.
Is it best?
The Apostle Paul shares from his own experience, “To keep me from becoming conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But He said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:7-10). God is ultimately more concerned about building your character than alleviating your negative circumstances. Sometimes there is a greater purpose in not having a prayer answered in the way you think it should be.
Do you want God, or do you just want His blessings?
In the verses above, it is evident that Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” caused an inadequacy in him, therefore, it drew him closer to God. When we only want stuff, we may get stuff, but we miss out on something greater. Sometimes God holds off on the handouts until we see that we need and want Him above His blessings. Take a look at the parallel passage to Matthew 7:11, Luke 11:13, “‘If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!’” Here we can see that the paramount thing for which to ask is the Holy Spirit. If our seemingly unanswered prayers drive us to ask for Him, we are actually receiving the best thing possible.
So, now what?
We are now ready to look at the rest of Matthew 7:7 & 8. I do not believe Jesus is just using poetic language when He says, “‘Seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you … the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, it will be opened‘” (Matthew 7:7-8). Every one of God’s good children who asks receives, but it is only to the one who seeks that finds, and to the one who knocks that doors will be opened. I believe there is a reason He added the words seek and knock. Jesus is trying to tell us something else about what is available to us in prayer. There is something beyond having payers answered.
Seek
If you were to pick up an exhaustive concordance of the entire Bible and look under the word seek, or if you were to do an internet search of the word seek in the Bible, you would find hundreds of verses containing this word. You would find that many of them are about seeking God; the majority of those, promise a reward for seeking Him or a punishment for not inquiring of Him. “‘You will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will hear you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart’” (Jeremiah 29:12-13). “The Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you” (2 Chronicles 15:2). “I sought the Lord, and He answered me and delivered me from all my fears” (Psalm 34:4). “And those who know Your name put their trust in You, for You, O Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You” (Psalm 9:10). “‘If My people who are called by My name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land’” (2 Chronicles 7:14). Clearly, those who pray with the goal of seeking God, end up receiving much more than answered prayers.
Knock
There are far fewer verses in the Bible that speak of knocking and opening. So, figuring out what Jesus is telling us with the use of this word is somewhat more difficult.
One set of verses about knocking and opening are found in connection with the account of Peter being miraculously released from jail by an angel. Upon his release, he went to the home of those who are praying for his release. He knocked on the door, and a servant girl answered the door, but, in her shock, slammed it in his face. (See Acts 12:1-19). Though there is a spiritual principle to be gleaned from this passage, it doesn’t help us much in figuring out what Jesus means here by the invitation to knock.
Two other sets of verses can be found in parables told by Jesus. They contain warnings and promises of blessing. “‘Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us,’ then he will answer you, ‘I do not know where you come from’” (Luke 13:24-25). And, “‘Be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them … You also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect’” (Luke 12:36-37 & 40). These verses begin to open up the meaning and give us hints as to what Jesus is saying when He tells us to knock.
The idea is further expounded when we consider two other verses. “‘Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with Me”’ (Revelation 3:20). And, “A sound! My beloved is knocking. ‘Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my perfect one’” (Song of Solomon 5:2).
Knocking leads to so much more than expected. When one knocks, Jesus opens a door to something amazing which may have not even existed in the knocker’s wildest dreams. When Jesus knocks and one opens the door to Him, one receives the best possible gift. Don’t miss this! This is “the mystery hidden for ages and generations but now revealed to His saints … the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:26-27)! Those who have the courage and desire to knock, and those who are ready and willing to open the door when Jesus knocks, are in a spiritual sense, promised the fellowship, the joy, the laughter, the memories, the enjoyment, and the sustenance similar to what one can find around the dining room table as part of a happy family, as well as, the love, the passion, the gentleness, the attentiveness, the satisfaction, and the fulfillment that a loving married couple enjoys in the bedroom! All of that is experienced when we are in Christ and Christ is in us. What more could we want? Jesus said, “‘In that day you will ask nothing of Me’” (John 16:23). We won’t have to ask. We will already have everything we desire.
God uses pictures of the dining room and the bedroom to encourage one to enter into a deeper relationship with Him. I realize some of you may have never experienced the kind of love and joy illustrated here in either your dining room or your bedroom. (That is so like Satan to take something God intended to be absolutely amazing and twist it all up and turn it into something horrible). But you can have these things in Christ where they are pure and wonderful!
Ask and you will be answered, but don’t stop there. Seek and you will be rewarded with more of God Himself, but don’t quit there. There is so much more! Knock and you will enter into sweet, satisfying, intimate fellowship with Jesus, which is the fulfillment of everything you have ever wanted. Could it be that we, as average Christians, haven’t even scratched the surface of the potential of prayer?
1Scripture quotations marked with ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version (ESV), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All Scriptures are taken from the ESV unless otherwise noted. To aid in understanding, I have capitalized references to God.