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Gospel of Matthew - Chapter 7 - Persistent Prayer
By Paul George Matthew 7:7-11
"Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. Or who is there among you, who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, who will give him a serpent? If you then, being 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!" (WEB).
While the first six verses of chapter 7 have informed us of unproductive activities for the Christian, verses 7 through 11 provide us with a profitable activity, prayer. A number of Bible students have concluded that these verses have little or nothing to do with the preceding verses, but this seems very unlikely.
In verses 7-11 Jesus is challenging us to redirect our destructive energies to that of productive prayer. More than this, nothing neutralizes a critical spirit more than prayer. You cannot stay angry at those for whom you are praying, seeking their salvation and best interest. This, no doubt, is why Jesus tells us to pray for our enemies (Matthew 5:44; Luke 6:28).
There is a second connection between verses 1-6 and 7-11. Jesus has just taught us that we are not to be critical of others, standing over them as their judge. Jesus also said we are to discern between good and evil, truth and falsehood, holy and unholy. The question that immediately comes to mind is how can we distinguish between destructive criticism and discernment? It is difficult, even impossible, without divine enablement, verses 7-11 is an encouragement to pray for the wisdom and enablement demanded by verses 1-6.
Verse 7 suggests aggressive and intensive praying, not for things, but for enablement.
There are four points we want to examine:
1. The External Components of Persistent Prayer
2. The Three promises
3. The purpose of Persistent prayer
4. The Obstacle
The external components of persistent prayer are, ask, seek, and knock. Ask is calling upon God. Seek is coming before God searching for an answer to the questions why, what, or how. Knock implies perseverance.
The three promises are (1) you shall receive what you ask; (2) you will find what you seek; (3) it shall open to you. While it is not stated in the promises the promises are conditional. Whatever we ask, whatever we seek, whatever is opened must be within the will of God.
The first purpose of persistent prayer is to obtain what we need and not what we want; what we want may not be what we need and God knows what we need before we ask. He will give us what we need. The second purpose of persistent prayer is to find answers to the questions, what, why, and how. Persistent prayer should be one in which we seek the answer to the question what is God's purpose for letting a situation we did not understand or is not because of something we said or did entering into our lives. When we seek the answer to the question why a certain situation entered our lives it should never be "Why me" but why have You permitted this situation and how can I use the situation to bring glory to your name and bring me into a closer relationship with You and my fellowman. We should never come before God with a blaming attitude.
We need to also be aware of the fact the promise, "Ask and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you" has been used to put a guilt trip on many by claiming what a person has asked for they did not receive, what a person was seeking for they did not find, and it was not opened unto them because they lacked faith. Why faith plays a major role in our receiving what we ask, what we seek, and what is open unto us, the number one condition is the will of God. When our prayer is not answered in the way we want it to be answered we must take the same attitude Jesus took when facing the pain and suffering, "not my will but your will."
Because of the perverting of the promises, you shall receive what you ask; you will find what you seek; it shall be opened to you has led to the down fall of multitudes.
James said, "You ask, and don't receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures" (James 4:3 WEB).
The number one obstacle to the answer to prayer is doubt; the first person to doubt the goodness of God was Eve. As a pastor I have heard people after bringing their needs to the Lord leave an altar of prayer and say, I asked God to meet my need but I really do not think He will meet the need. They would have been better off if they had never asked God to meet their need and then deny His goodness.
In verses nine to eleven Jesus makes a comparison between our heavenly Father and our earthly father. We often ask our earthly father to give us what we want and he gives us what we ask for. The difference between our earthly father and our heavenly Father is our early father does not always know what we ask for is not what we need. In fact what we ask for and our earthly father gives us can be harmful to us physically, mentally, and spiritually.
The father in verses nine and ten is a loving father. He gives to his children what they need to satisfy his children's physical, mental, and spiritual needs, bread. We can use the stone as a symbol as the worthless things of this life that may be what a child wants but the wise father knows that what his children need to grow physically, mentally, and spiritually. The children may not appreciate what their father has given but he has done what God expects of every father.
We need to thank God for fathers who give their children bread and not a stone, a fish and not a serpent. In this evil age there are far too many fathers who are giving their children stones and not bread, serpents and not fish.
If earthly fathers give their children what they need, Jesus' point is our heavenly Father will go beyond what our earthly fathers do to meet our needs.
When we complain our heavenly Father did not give us what we asked for, we need to remove the blinders so we can see what He has given is better than what we asked for. If we remove the blinders we will see our heavenly Father has given us something better and more valuable than anything our earthly fathers could give us. Our earthly fathers gives us what has temporary value. Our heavenly Father gives us what has eternal value.
Our earthly fathers may give us what we are seeking. Our earthly fathers may be able to give us what we need to fill the void in our lives but our heavenly Father can give us what we need to fill the void in our heart.
In this life we may be seeking fame, fortune, and applaud of our peers. Our earthly fathers may be able to help us obtain that goal. Our heavenly Father may not give us the fame, fortune, and applaud of peers. He can give a robe of pure white, a golden crown, and the angles we applaud us.
Persistent prayer may not accomplish what we are asking for, what we are seeking, and door may not be opened. However, our heavenly Father will give us much more than we ask for, seek for, and ask to open and all we need to do is ask Him to pour out the blessings has for those who truly trust and obey Him and our cups will overflow.
Retired pastor,Church of the Nazarene
Author of web site Exploring God's Word
www.thewordofgodonline.net
New American Standard Bible
King James Version
The World English Bible
Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com