Saturday, November 14, 2009
Prayer’s Promise
(Matthew 7:7-11)
Prayer can be hard, time-consuming work! In an age of instant everything and fast-food convenience, patience and persistence are in short supply. Prayer, however, requires both.
The words ask, seek, and knock appear as “present, active, imperatives” in the Greek language. Simply put, that means that Jesus expected us to keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking. Prayer is not a one-stop shop. Rather, prayer is a continuous action motivated by a believing heart dependent upon God.
The good news is that asking, seeking, and knocking gets results. Those who faithfully ask eventually receive. Those who keep on seeking someday find, and those who continue knocking discover the door will open. Prayer—even repeated over long periods of time—is never wasted. In fact, it is the continuity of prayer that garners results. So, just keep on praying!
Why is this so? Because God, as our Heaven Father, is far more attune to the needs of His children than earthly fathers are to the needs of their own sons. And God meets our needs in an ever-appropriate and always-timely manner. The best of earthly fathers sometimes fails, but God makes no mistakes.
And, not only that, but God also promises to give “much more” than any earthly father possibly could (11). All we need do is “ask, and seek, and knock”—and keep on doing it until the answer comes. Remember, God is eager to meet our needs as we earnestly present them to Him.
