What did Jesus mean when He told us to ask, seek, and knock?

203 Then there is instruction in the deep need which the thing prayed for supplies, and hence faith wrought in entire dependence as gift where there was only weakness, or even evil in the use of the answer. The great thing presented here is the exercise of faith, and the sense of necessity. We see the character of the hindrance in the case of the widow and her adversary. There is also in this intercession instruction in all the ways and counsels of God concerning His Church, and the things prayed for. Conscience in the light of the Spirit being brought near to God, the hindrances, the difficulties, the counsels of God in allowing them, His righteous judgment in it, in overcoming them in some holy place of wisdom, are given in communion with our God, and thus intimacy of service is wrought with Him, and, though beginning in sorrow, it ends in blessing and the sense of that special honour and blessing, "God's fellow-workmen," while dependence and humbleness, the only state in which this can be, is specially maintained. But in principle faith and dependence are that which are brought into exercise, and negligence of heart is effectually corrected. The Lord also uses this to encourage in the certainty of receiving: "And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one," etc. These different forms are put purposely to meet every case in which desire, need, or spiritual difficulty and energy might be called out, so that the heart might have no excuse in its negligence. Also the idea is presented of a God who gives, who opens to those without, who acts not on the previous privileges but upon existing faith and need, on the moral position of those to whom the answer is afforded. And hence it is: "Every one that asks." Hence any Gentile, whose heart is so touched, can come in, whose heart seeks aid and supply from God. And thus the character of this part of the gospel is fully also maintained. In this first part grace, or giving to whomsoever, is stated, but it is gift to need coming in the exercise of faith. God is accessible in affluent grace, but, as He is to be approached, the whole condition of him who approaches is brought into question, or of that in respect of which the petition is presented. Next, we have the subject of gift properly needed in the case to which they and the whole work of God was now brought, and founded in full grace on the character and relationship in which grace had now placed them, placed them not perhaps yet in the consciousness of their own position but in the revelation of the Father to them, as One too who was heavenly, and the deduction of the consequences flowing from the necessity of that character. In a word, it was not now merely God in holiness accessible to whosoever asked and sought, but a Father, in the kindness and perfection of His heavenly character, dealing in the love and consistency with such a relationship as viewed above with those who by this relationship could enter into the enjoyment of, and by it too would soon have the need of that which could realise to them, and assure the joy, and fortify, and direct them in the need according to the character of which it was the witness. It is a blessed argument from the imperfection of man to the perfection of God in man's favour.

The Lord had previously given His disciples instructions as to prayer, but in the verses we now come to they are very blessedly encouraged to pray. "Ask, and it shall be given you" (verse 7). Oh, if we always acted on it! The apostle James says, "Ye have not because ye ask not," and he also adds, "Ye ask and receive not because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts" (4. z, 3). Now the way to ask rightly is the secret shown in John 15:7. "If ye abide in me" a life of dependence — "and my words abide in you" — they are formative and produce right desires — "ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you." And this corresponds with Psalm 37:4, because if I am delighting in the Lord, right desires will be created. Neglect of the word of God would be neglect of the true safeguard. "Ask" implies something I desire to have; "seek" something I have missed, and "knock" wanting an entrance. It means increased importunity. There is more intensity in "seeking" than in "asking;" and again, in "knocking" than in seeking.

'Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you' (verse 7). Although the Lord Jesus does not mention the word 'pray', but speaks of asking, seeking and knocking, the following verses make clear that he is encouraging the disciples-who He speaks to first-to pray fervently. Luke, who records the events of the Lord's life and His words in their inner moral sense, lets the passage follow as His answer to the disciple's plea: 'Lord, teach us to pray' (Luke 11:1-13).

An increasing intensity is recognisable in the three verbs 'ask, seek, knock'

'Ask' will be found in various references in the Word of God as a special form of prayer (for example John 11:22; 14:13; Col. 1:9; Jas. 1:5) 'Seek' is the upright, earnest endeavour to find something (see Psa. 34:4; Is. 55:6) 'Knock' indicates that outward hindrances and shyness can be overcome as well.

Asking reveals the desire of the one praying. Seeking and knocking however indicate that prayers will not always be answered immediately. We are all in danger of becoming tired and weary in our prayers.

In verse 9 He encouraged an increasing urgency in prayer, not only to ask, but to seek, and more still, to knock with the insistence of one who has serious need. Yet all three degrees of urgency will be answered, for God cares for us in perfection of love. Everyone who asks receives. This supposes the asking to be in subjection to the will of God, for some asked and did not receive because they asked amiss (James 4:3). The one who seeks finds: this too must be genuine, honest seeking the blessing of God, as is also the case with knocking. The door will be opened where faith impels one to knock. In all of this it is faith that is encouraged.

A son asking bread of his father generally has confidence that his father will answer considerately. To give a stone in place of bread would be cruelty: do believers not have more confidence in their Father than this? The stone would be harmless but useless in this case, but if a serpent was given instead of a fish, the substitute would be positively harmful. In prayer therefore let us ask in unwavering faith, assured that our Father will answer in the best way possible for us.

If in verse 6 the ungodly are seen to be in no state to receive the things of God, for they do not ask; we, on the other hand, are encouraged to ask and receive. This dependent, concerned state of soul is that which the Father delights to answer. Each of these stages becomes more insistent, "ask," "seek" and "knock"' Such reality of exercise is precious to God, and there is no doubt of a favorable answer: "it shall be given," "ye shall find," "it shall be opened. Let us remember however that it is the "holy things" and "pearls" that are to be our prime desire.

Verse 8 insists that everyone who asks receives, etc. This is manifestly seen in the prospering of souls who are in earnest. The Lord does not say or infer that we shall get everything that our fleshly nature desires. James 4:3 effectively reproves that suggestion. Still, earthly fathers are concerned for their children's needs, usually. If a child asks bread, will he be given a stone? or if a fish, will he be given a serpent? No father is likely to be so callous as this. The stone is useless, but the serpent is dangerous. On the other hand, if a child asked for a serpent, what father would give it to him? Why would we ever think of asking for what is useless or harmful?

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you. For every one that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened. Or what man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask of him for a loaf, will give him a stone; and if he ask for a fish, will give him a serpent? If therefore ye, being wicked, know to give good gifts to your children, how much rather shall your Father that is in the heavens give good things to those that ask him? Therefore all things whatsoever ye desire that men should do to you, thus do ye also to them; for this is the law and the prophets" (Matt. 7:7-12).

It is not a sinner needing life and forgiveness of his sins, but saints directed to appeal to God and assured of their Father's answer of love, whatever their wants be. The Lord had already taught it them to pray in Matt. 6 as with alms and fasting, parts of saintly righteousness and due to His name and glory. Here He enforces it as the way in which all they need from above is to be given them. Hence perseverance and earnestness are incumbent. Asking will ensure receiving, yea to every one that asks; seeking will not be fruitless but shall find; and to the still more importunate the door will be opened, which is but shut to exercise faith.

For there may be a matter of importance for the applicant to learn before the request can be granted, as with the Syro-phenician woman, so earnest in supplicating the Lord to have pity on her, whose daughter was grievously possessed by a demon. Yet at first the Lord answered her not a word. She pleaded like a lost sheep of Israel's house; whereas she was a Greek, and had no right of promise with the Messiah; indeed she was a Canaanite, and thus under the curse. But when she drops His title as Son of David, and gathered from His answer to the disciples wherein her mistake lay, she did Him homage, saying, Lord, help me. On this He speaks out, It is not good to take the bread of the children, and cast it to the whelps. This did help her soul, for it led her to the secret of sovereign grace on which she at once threw herself, saying, Yea, Lord; for even the whelps eat of the crumbs which fall from the table of their masters. Then Jesus answering said to her, O woman, great is thy faith; be it done to thee as thou wilt. The door opened to her knock. She was deepened and cleared in her faith, as her daughter was healed from that hour.

"Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." Here it is our dealings with God. We are taken back to the section on prayer, and reminded of the hungering and thirsting of the fourth Beatitude. There were those who asked amiss, that they might use it for pleasure (James 4:3); others sought, but not in faith (John 6:34); and some will knock to be refused admission (Matt. 25:11); but the Lord encourages His own to simple direct dealings with their Father in heaven. This is the opposite to all vain repetition, and teaches that the Lord's disciples were not bound to the recitation of the form of words He had put before them in the previous chapter, but free to voice the deep feelings of their souls to God and to present their needs to Him. The illustration drawn from human relationships was calculated to encourage them, for it shows the delight of God in giving. If man in spite of his fallen condition recognizes the claims of nature, and fathers after the flesh give good gifts to their children, what shall we say of the giving God? He it is who delights to be enquired after, and "He is a rewarder of them who seek Him out" (Heb. 11: 6).

A. To encourage the disciples in dependence and prayer, with ever rising degrees of earnest importunity on our part, with every assurance of a gracious answer on our Father's. Even in human relationships the needy suppliant is not refused or mocked. "If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?"

If such is the way of selfish, ease-loving man, how much more will the God of all grace hearken to those who cry to Him! He is not weary; He never slumbers nor sleeps; He is full of goodness and compassionate care. "I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given unto you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you"287 — an evident climax, all tending to urgency of supplication before God: not as if God needed it, but man does; and God values the earnestness of man's heart, although His own is open to the cry of want or distress from the very first. But we know that there are hindrances from other causes, and that the Lord has Himself told us of a kind (speaking of evil spirits) that goes not forth but by prayer and fasting. There we have the highest degree of the soul's abstraction from all else, giving itself up to God's power in order to defeat the devil. "For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it will be opened." There is always in Luke, not only an appeal to the feelings of the heart, and man's own concession of what even he would do in order to illustrate the ways of God, infinitely more admirable and excellent, but there is also a comprehensiveness which goes far beyond the narrow bounds of Israel. "Every one that asks receives." Thus we have here the call to importunity of prayer, and the certainty of God's answer.287a

But this is again enforced on the ground of the relationship of a child with a father. "Of whom of you that is a father shall a son ask bread, and [the father] shall give288 him a stone? or also a fish, and instead of a fish shall give him a serpent? or if also he shall ask an egg, shall give him a scorpion?" How contrary to the feelings of a parent, to mock when he affects to give! to give what is injurious instead of what is good! Impossible that a father, speaking now ordinarily of any father, would be guilty of such ways. "If, therefore, ye, being289 evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more will the Father who [is] of heaven290 give [the] Holy Spirit291 to them that ask him." In the Gospel of Matthew it is "give good things to them that ask him."291a "Bread . . . or also." These words, read by Tischendorf, are questioned by Treg., relegated to marg. by W. H., and rejected by Weiss and Blass, after B Sah. Arm. Origen (from Matthew).