Ask seek and knock
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| English: Detail of stained glass window created by Louis Comfort Tiffany in Arlington Street Church (Boston) depicting the Sermon on the Mount. March 2009 photo by John Stephen Dwyer (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
those who ask him!” (v. 11).
Knowing God as judge has a sanctifying and restraining effect on our lives. In other words, reflecting on God’s perfect holiness drives us to recognize our own sin and deal with it before we judge others (Matt. 7:1–5). We begin to see who we are — depraved men and women who cannot merit the Lord’s forgiveness. This helps us to be merciful. If our Father in His infinite goodness can pardon us, surely we sinners can forgive others.
However, we still often find it hard to show mercy even when we know the Lord’s character. We still need wisdom to distinguish between those who will mock the Gospel and those who will not trample upon the good news (v. 6). Moreover, we are in desperate need of God’s help in order that we might live
up to the high calling throughout the Sermon on the Mount to be salt and light
(5:13–16), obey the law of Christ in heart and deed (vv. 21–48), abstain from
hypocrisy (6:1–18), and serve the Lord wholeheartedly (vv. 19–34).
This need is the reason why our Savior returns to the subject of prayer in
today’s passage. Living in conformity to His way is impossible if we attempt
to do it in our own power. But if we persevere in prayer, seeking to be
empowered by the Spirit to obey Christ with gladness, God will enable us to be
faithful to His call (7:7–8). Our Father is generous and kind. He will not
trick us and give us a stone that looks like bread when it is bread that we
need, and He will not give us a snake if we need fish (vv. 9–10, some Galilean
fish look like serpents). Our Creator will give us all the spiritual and
physical resources we need to serve Him if we ask Him in faith (Mark
11:22–24).
Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 7:7–11 does not assure us that we will get
everything we want, only whatever we need. We are often unable to tell the
differences between these things, but God does not have this problem. If we do not get what we ask for, let us therefore not think He has forgotten us. As
John Calvin writes: “We must not think that he takes no notice of us, when he
does not answer our wishes: for he has a right to distinguish what we actually
need.”
We persevere in prayer knowing that our Father in His goodness will never
withhold from us what we really need. We also need to recall, Matthew Henry
says, that “we often ask that of God which would do us harm if we had it; he
knows this, and therefore does not give it to us.” When the Lord does not give
us what we want, let us remember that it is probably because what we want
would be harmful to us. Even God’s “no” to us is evidence of His great love
for us.
