How To Pray Pt. 11 Jesus Said Ask, Seek And Knock When You Pray

We are allowing our Lord Jesus Christ to teach us about prayer. We spent time in the Lord's prayer and now move into other places where Christ taught about prayer.

Asking, Seeking, Knocking while Praying

Matthew 7:7,8  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: 8)  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. 

When teaching the Lord's prayer to us, Jesus commanded that we pray following that pattern. God will honor prayer that follows His parameters. 

However in this text, prayer is presented as a God appointed means to obtain what we truly need, and for grace to obey His commandments. 

There are three verbs for believers who pray. They imply that we must be active and engaged when we pray to our Father in heaven.

We are to ask, seek and knock. This conveys the idea of praying often, praying with sincerity, praying with seriousness and praying with persistence. 

The word "ask" means to beg, to earnestly crave or express an intense desire for something from our Father. A Greek mind of someone living at the time of Christ, would connect "asking" with a beggar asking for a meal, an article of clothing or a place of shelter. 

Ask our petitions of Jesus Christ with humility and full confidence .

1 John 5:13-15  These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. 14)  And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: 15)  And if we know that he hears us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. 

John the apostle was past 90 years of age when the Holy Spirit moved him to write this letter. He walked and talked with Jesus and was the disciple especially loved by Christ. Thus, it is fitting that this senior saint would teach us about prayer.

John tells us that these specific truths were written to encourage our faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We believe on Him and know that we have eternal life.

Because of our standing as believers, we have complete confidence in Jesus Christ, that when we pray to the Father through Christ, He will hear our prayer.

We are to "ask" for only those things that are according to His will. This means that we must search out the will of God in the scriptures, so that we can understand what we should or should not pray for. 

The Lord Jesus Christ emboldens us to come to God in all circumstances, with all our supplications and requests (See Hebrews 4:14-16). Our prayers and petitions come through Christ and are accepted of God. 

What we pray for must conform to the declared will of God. It is wrong to ask for anything that is contrary to the will of God or that is detrimental to our well being. 

It is right to ask for our Father to supply for the physical and spiritual needs that we have, because we are dependent upon Him.

"Asking" God for something in prayer is to tell Him about our burdens and needs, knowing that we cannot supply it for ourselves. It is asking Him to supply for our needs as He has promised to do.

God alone can give us the grace and mercy that we crave. He alone promises to meet our physical and spiritual needs in accord with His will.

Seeking Jesus Christ is worthy of our best efforts. 

Matthew 13:45,46  Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: 46)  Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it. 

The word "seek" or "seeking" means  diligently seeking with persistent effort, to find something. We seek it by thinking, meditating or enquiring about it. It means striving after what we are seeking and aiming to find what we are looking for. 

To "seek" is like praying to be able to recover of some valuable item that we lost. It could be praying for a wayward child, an unsaved family member, or for revival of our own zeal in our heart.

Jesus gave us a good example of "seeking" when we pray. "Seeking" in prayer is like the merchant man who sold all of his earthly good to buy the pearl of great price. Jesus' parable is a picture of believers seeking Him above all else. 

Earlier in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught us to seek the kingdom of God first, because this is to be the priority and focus of our lives (Matthew 6:25-34).

We are commanded to "seek" those things that are above where Christ is seated, with our affections set on Him, not on the things of this world (Colossians 3:1-3). 

If we are seeking revival, we must do what God wants us to do. That is, we take time to study His word, spend time praying and worshiping Him. We must be His faithful witnesses and walk a worthy walk as we live out our faith in Christ, day by day. 

It is no good to seek revival in our heart, if we are unwilling to do those good things that God clearly commands us to do.

Knock at the right door for the right reason.

Luke 13:24-27  Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able. 25)  When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are: 26)  Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in thy presence, and thou hast taught in our streets. 27)  But he shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from me, all ye workers of iniquity. 

This teaching of Jesus connects to Matthew 7:12-14, the straight gate and the broad way.  Here, Jesus refers to the straight gate and people knocking on the door for admittance when the master shut the door.

This is a picture of our Master Jesus Christ, shutting the door that the straight gate leads to. The door leads to eternal life in heaven with Christ. Thus, this parable connects to other teaching about the final judgment (Matthew 13, 24, 25, 2 Thessalonians 1, and so on).

In this setting, the time of gospel preaching has ended, and those knocking to get in the door are turned away. No doubt they are scrambling to get in the door because they recognize that God is going to hold them to account for their sins. They rejected the gospel of Christ, and find themselves, rejected.

How does this relate to knocking while praying? The key difference is that those knocking on the door, are turned away because they claimed knowledge of Christ eating, drinking and teaching in their community. 

However, they did not "know" Jesus Christ as their Savior. They did not turn to Christ with repentant faith. They knew "about" Him, but that is not the same as knowing Him. Therefore, their knocking on the door of heaven was in vain.  

In contrast to the Christ rejectors being turned away, Jesus will always open the door of heaven widely, and will welcome us in when any believer knocks on His door. 

We "know" Him through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost. We "know" Jesus by reading our Bible, listening to His teaching, seeing His marvelous works. 

Since we "know" Christ, He will always open the door to the throne room of heaven, when we knock and pray. 

"Knocking" is a reminder of the Father's faithfulness. He will hear the prayers of all believers in Christ. He will open His ears and attend to our prayers. We have but to knock at His door of grace and mercy. 

This is somewhat of a rebuke to us because Jesus often stands and patiently knocks at the door of our hearts, and we do not always readily open up to Him (Revelation 3:20). 

God's action on our behalf is that when we ask according to His will, He will give what deems best for us. Notice that what we ask for, will be given to us. It is a gift from God and reminds us that our salvation is the free gift of God to us (Ephesians 2:8-9).

He promises that we will find what it is that we are earnestly seeking for. When we seek God, we will find Him and having found Him, we will be content. What more could anyone desire than God?

When we knock, He will open up to us.  

Matthew 7:9-11  Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? 10)  Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11)  If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him? 

Here is the application of this parable. Jesus teaches us that we will feed our children when they are hungry and ask for food, even though we are evil because of the sin inherited from Adam.

Here is the great contrast. When a believer asks, seeks and knocks in prayer, how much more shall our heavenly Father delight in us and be swift to supply our needs? 

This is a rhetorical statement that demands an reply of "Yes, my heavenly Father will treat me infinitely better than I treat my own children, whom I love!" 

Thoughts to Ponder...

We are assured that God will hear our prayers. We are assured that He will answer our prayers. 

Matthew 7:8  For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Jesus tells us what we can expect when we come to Him in prayer, asking, seeking and knocking. 

We can expect that we will receive what we asked for when we pray according to God's will. 

We can expect to find God Himself, when we seek Him in prayer. What more could any believer desire than an audience with the One, True Living God?

We can expect that the doors of heaven will swing open wide and a warm welcome will be given to us, when we knock, by knowing and trusting Jesus Christ. 

Is it any wonder that Satan tries to do all that he can to distract us when we pray, to stop us from praying and to cause us to pray for something that is not in the will of God?

May the Lord strengthen us and may His Spirit be our mighty help, coming alongside us when we pray. May we pray with simple faith, trusting Christ and loving our Father, who has promised to supply our needs. 

Bob