Twenty-Five PromisesMatthew 7:7-11 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. 9″Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? 11If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
As Matthew moves toward the end of his record of Jesus’ teaching, which we call the Sermon on the Mount, he records a summary promise. The first two phrase ‘ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find’ probably refer back to Jesus’ teaching on prayer and anxiety. In Matthew 6:5-14 Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, and what to ask: for the Father’s glory, for his will to be done, for daily provision and for relief from temptation and evil. In Matthew 6:25-34 He taught his disciples what to seek: God’s kingdom and His righteousness, without being anxious about what you will wear or what you will eat, or being troubled about tomorrow.
Now he teaches that if you ask this way, you will be given what you ask. If you seek this way, you will be given what you seek. The third element ‘knock and the door will be opened to you’ probably speaks to persistence – even when God does not seem to be answering, we need to continue in prayer, confident that God has good in mind for his children.
I couldn’t think of too many great ‘Ask, Seek and Knock’ songs. Here’s an interesting video, though: Ask, Seek, Knock
An oldie but a goodie Seek Ye First
Jennifer Knapp’s version of the Lord’s Prayer: Hallowed
And John Foreman’s: Your Love is Strong
