Devotions Archive Archive: 1999 | 2000 | 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 Search Archive Print This Article A.sk S.eek K.nock Thursday, February 17, 2005 Matthew 7:7-8 "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. "For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." The Greek tense used here denotes continual action. Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. Jesus suggests no timeline and no cut-off point for this process. He simply says that when I can stay both humble and hungry for as long as it takes, God will certainly honor my efforts. This understanding quickly shunts me away from the idea that God promises to satisfy each of my desires. Thank heavens! If God were that indulgent he'd have to rescue me daily from my own lust. But because I often have to wait for God's answers to those prayers of mine, I sometimes stop asking. This, Jesus says, is not acceptable. Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock." When I no longer ask and seek and knock, I shut God out. I feel utterly alone. I have given up my hope and lost my faith. I have no right to do it, but I assure myself the unseen future will be just the same as my unsatisfying present. How dumb is that? What is there to lose anyway by knocking and knocking and knocking some more? Only my pride, my foolish foolish pride. In God's all-consuming fire he will burn everything except the pure man he made me to be. While I ask, while I seek, while I knock, while I wait on him ... he is making all things new. You, Lord, are the patient one. Make me like you, make me more like you. "; Add      Edit    Delete