Matt 7:7   Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.

              

One of the important things when looking at this verse is to understand the tense of the verbs. Each one is ongoing so it is “ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking, knock and keep on knocking.” There is, then, a suggestion that Jesus is looking for our persistence or perseverance in the Christian faith.

 

It is almost as if God is looking for the sincerity of our approach. Do we really want this or are we being half-hearted about it?  I often wonder if so many of our prayers are just uttering words to satisfy our Christian conscience. I 'ought' to do this but meaning it, is something different! When we pray and ask for something, do we really want it, and do we really believe God wants it for us?  If we do then we will go on asking and asking until we get it. That was the point of Jesus' parable in Lk 18:1-8.

 

When we are seeking something in our Christian life before God, do we really want it and do we really believe that God wants us to have it, because if we do, we'll keep on and on looking until we get it!  Likewise if we want a doorway of opportunity, say, to be opened up before us, do we really want that when we go knocking on heaven's door, and do we really believe that this is God's will for us?  These are the crucial questions here.

 

Much of the time we need to come to a place where we are convinced of God's will (and that is the first difficult bit) and once we are, then we need to pray, seek and knock until we get it (and that is the second difficult bit). This verse is really all about coming to assurance over God's will for our lives and then going for that until we get it. Uncertainty is, I suggest, the enemy of the kingdom or will of God. There may be many reasons why we are people of doubt, and so we need to face those reasons and ask for God's help with them, because until they are dealt with, we will not be a people who persevere in prayer.