It Never Hurts to Ask
My mother had a saying: “If you ask me for something, Hell will freeze over before you get it.” This and, “Your hands don’t have eyeballs so you don’t need to touch to look at something,” were repeated every time we went to the store. As a mother, I understand how frustrating it can be to attempt to get your shopping done with your children continually asking for something they don’t need or touching everything they see. I understand why my mother always repeated these lines, but it affected my prayers life – and if I am honest – it still does. I feel guilty when I ask God something. With all the problems in the world, why am wasting God’s time with my requests? Afterall, we just read that God already knows what we need and will provide. It is because of this way of thinking that I am so thankful for Matthew 7:7-12. God could have left it off at ‘Don’t worry, I got this.’ If He had, I would never have learned to need my Heavenly Father. I would never have learned to depend on Him or turn to Him in my times of need. Our relationship would be far more formal and far less intimate.
We don’t have a God that wants to be distant from His children. We don’t have a God who is easily annoyed by our pestering. Quite the opposite! Our reading today is a promise. It is a promise of God’s interaction with His children. Yes, God knows what we need, and He won’t give us what we want if it contradicts our needs and His will. Even though He knows all these things and He is ultimately in control of what we receive, He still invites us to ask. Not only does He invite us to ask, He tells us to grow in persistence in asking. First, Jesus tells us to ask. The Greek word is aiteo which means to ask, beg, crave or desire. We begin with a desire that we share with our God. Sometimes, this is all it takes. Sometimes, God answers those gentle asking questions right away, but not always. Jesus then tells us to seek after we have asked. To seek, zeteo in Greek, is to look for an answer, to expect it, to strive for or aim at the answer. There are different ways we can seek an answer to our prayers. We can search through scripture for answers to our struggles. The Bible is God’s word. The answer to our prayers will never contradict His word. Therefore, scripture can guide us to our answers. We can search out others who can advise us in godly council. We can continue to pray and keep our hearts and eyes open for answers. If we have asked, sought, and still are waiting for a response, Jesus then tells us to knock. In Greek, the word is krouo which is to knock with a heavy blow. This shows persistence and commitment to the asking. Don’t give up. Many times, I have found that the wait was just as important as the answer.
Pray, keep praying, don’t worry that your prayers are annoying God. He never gets annoyed by our asking. In fact, He invites us to ask again and again. He cherishes our prayers and calls them a sweet aroma. Let us not allow our insecurities to keep us from running to our Heavenly Father.
(Written by Keegan Harkins.)
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