Matthew 7:7-10 (ESV Strong's)
“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?
Persistent Prayer Pays
It could be widely assumed that all believers have spent some time in prayer. It could be assumed that most people, non-believers alike, have spent time in some sort of meditative prayer ritual. It is doubtful most, even believers, in today’s society, have done what Jesus is talking about in the above passage. In our English translation we lose something in the above text that can only be realized in the original language. The phrase, “ask, and it shall be given you, seek, and you will find, knock, and it will be opened to you,” is lacking, as written in English, the Greek imperative tense. The Amplified Bible does a great job to capture the Greek tense intended by Jesus:
Matthew 7:7 (AMPC)
Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find;keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you.
The emphasis in this text, as opposed to what Jesus had previously said about prayer (see chapter six), is the persistence we are to have in prayer. Prayer is NOT a one time, brief, drive-up or mobile order to engage God in Heavenly Customer Service practices. Jesus is once agin teaching us something that was contrary to the form of the day. The general world does not really believe in prayer and certainly not persistent prayer. They might offer up pleas to the universe, but they are NOT coming to God on a regular basis in sincere, reverent prayer, expecting God, in His time to respond. Many believers do not even do this type of prayer.
Notice what the response of God is to a persistent approach to prayer:
Matthew 7:8-10 (ESV Strong's)
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?
God is not a cruel God who wants to withhold blessings from us. He is a God who wants to bless us!!! That is the point of the first words spoken in this Sermon on the Mount. Eight times Jesus says, “Blessed are ..”. God wants to gives us bread and not stone. He wants to gives us fish and not a servant. Our persistence in prayer is not because God needs urging to bless us. Our persistence in prayer is God’s avenue to shape us to His image and to help us learn His heart and His love for us. The last verse of this section reads:
Matthew 7:11 (ESV Strong's)
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!
God wants to give us “good” things. He just wants to use our persistence in prayer to accomplish His act of giving.
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