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.
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