Ask And You Will Receive

In the Gospel of Matthew 7:7-11, Jesus said, “Ask and you will receive. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be open.”

This passage is one that really resonates with me. I love the promises.  

But it also gives me pause. I remember hearing a TV preacher one time say, “God wants you to have that big house with a swimming pool. God wants you to have that. You just have to ask… and believe!”  

From what I know about Jesus in the Gospels, I’m pretty sure that’s not what he was getting at!

At the same time, even when we pray for other people, even when we pray with all our hearts for things that seem to line up with God’s will, I think we’ve all experienced times when we’ve not received what we asked for. We’ve had times when we’ve not found what we were searching for exactly. We’ve all bumped up against doors that have been closed, never to be opened.

 But here Jesus is not promising that God’s going to give exactly what we asked. In fact, when we read a little further in this same passage, he says, if you, who are human, know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him? 

This makes Jesus’ teaching a little more complex.  It implies that we have to trust that God sees the big picture, while we don’t. It implies the need for a relationship.  And it implies that the underlying promise is not that God grants every desire, but that ultimately, God is good. 

Let us pray: Jesus taught us, O God, that you are like a good parent, who wants us to come to you with our needs, with our hurts, even with our desires. Help us to trust that you see more clearly than we, and that you love us – even as you love this greater world of which we’re a part. We pray in His name. Amen.