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

    Anyone who has dealt with kids has probably had an experience of trying to give instructions that including tasks and a reward. Then coming to discover that, once the mention of the reward was made, that first bit sort of left their consciousness! I totally get that! At some level I think we all can tend to be that way if we’re not careful. 

    Today’s verse is a very well-known one. It might even be on Jesus’ ‘greatest hits’ album! But the verse is tucked in the middle of chapter 7 and is part of the Sermon on the Mount, which includes chapters 5 and 6. Look in most Bibles and you’ll find a long stretch of red text there! 

    This verse is one that seems simple, but is hard to understand apart from the greater context of what Jesus is saying. In Matthew’s Gospel, this is one of the first introductions to Jesus’ kingdom teaching. He has spent considerable time in outlining what the committed follower of Christ should know about the kingdom of God. Like that kid I mentioned earlier, it may be entirely possible to hear the sermon and get to a place where we realize we haven’t been listening carefully. But oh, how our ears perk up when we hear Jesus say that if we want something, we need only ask! This sounds exactly like something I hope He’d say! It reminds me of Christmas time back in the day when the Sears Christmas catalog - The Wish Book - would come. I relished poring over that catalog, marker in hand, circling items and folding corners of pages!

    But is that really what Jesus has in mind? Is that the kind of follower He is looking for? Am I just naturally everything He could want? Well, no. That’s the trouble we get into when we focus in on a specific verse and remove it from its larger context. There’s a reason that Jesus spoke this verse at the end of the sermon rather than at the beginning! When I read the Sermon on the Mount in its entirety, I start to realize that I have a lot of growing to do if I’m to reflect His attitudes. I see my needs first in the beatitudes which open the sermon, but in every paragraph, every verse that follows, I realize that in so many ways it just seems that I could never live up to what He seems to be saying I should be like.

    So is that it? I just resign myself to knowing ‘I’m only human!’ I just hope that God is grading on the curve? No! I want to live in a way pleasing to him. I want to be what He desires me to be. As I read His words I see how far short I fall, then He encourages me with, “Ask, seek, and knock!” My deepest desire should be to be like Him. He has shown me how with today’s verse! That’s a prayer you can be confident He’ll answer!

    

Blessings,