Persisting in Prayer

Matthew 7:7-8: "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."

These two verses come near the end of Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7).  They are poetic, pithy, and memorable.  Yet, for all the lyrical elegance and fine poeticism, we should not miss the real and important point that Jesus is making.

Jesus is exhorting believers to persist in their pursuit of God, to persevere in the quest for the Lord.  There is a progression: ask, seek, and knock.  Essentially, Jesus is prescribing the persistence it takes to get to God.  This is in no way to say that God is distant or far off.  Rather, their is a refinement, a proof-in-pudding that occurs when we truly commit to pursue after God.

Think of Abraham: waiting decades for God to provide him with a son.  Yet when the son is born, God asks him to sacrifice his son, Isaac.  Abraham then climbs the mountain with his son, ties Isaac, places him on the altar, and then, as he is about to sacrifice Isaac, God relents Abraham's hand, providing the sacrifice himself.  In the end, God knew that He wouldn't actually have Abraham sacrifice Isaac, but He needed Abraham himself to recognize his utter commitment to God.

Similarly, God knows when we will come to Him, but He wants us to ask, seek, and knock so that we will acknowledge how utterly devoted we are to God.  This is the essence of Jesus' exhortation.  Let us then commit to ask, seek, and knock with perseverant pursuit, eagerly chasing after the Lord.

Seeking After God and His Wisdom

The book of Proverbs is all about wisdom.  Over and over, the book can be summarized by the repeating phrase, "the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom."  This is a challenging concept in a world that thinks of fear in a negative sense.  Luckily, Solomon gives us clear and inspired instruction about how a person may learn about what is the fear of the Lord and what it means.

For this, one need not look much further than Proverbs 2:1-5.  In this sequence of verses, Solomon, the wisest man aside from Christ Jesus to ever live, lays out the path for a person to learn about the fear of the Lord.  Proverbs 2:1-5 reads as such:

"My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandment with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise you voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God."

The words have been italicized to emphasize the point of this passage.  There are preconditions that need to be met in the reception of wisdom from God.  Although there are multiple facets to these preconditions, they can be summarized in a single phrase: intentional pursuit.  The prominent word in these verses is then, for it indicates that what has been called for previously must be fulfilled in order for anyone to understand the fear of the Lord and to find the knowledge of God.

If we understand this as such, then what these verses say is astounding.  Basically, God does not reveal Himself to people who do not seek Him and He does not reveal Himself to latent, static, or passive observers.  Instead, God reveals His self, bestowing His infinites wisdom and knowledge, to those who treasure His commands, who listen attentively and incline their hearts to understanding, who cry out for insight and understanding, and who seek after it as if seeking buried treasure.  These are the necessary preconditions for knowing God that must be met before God reveals Himself.  Let us then take seriously our pursuit of the Lord God Almighty!