“Ask, and it will be given to you;
seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
– Matthew 7:7

It is a tragic reality that in this day and age, far too many followers of Christ live in fear of asking. For whatever reason, we are afraid to ask God for anything. At times, we might think that we are bothering God or that He does not care about our wants and needs.

This fear, however, is simply a lie from the enemy. All throughout scripture, Jesus makes it clear that He wants us to bring our desires to Him, and He wants to bless us out of His great love. He promises that when we come to Him with our requests, we will find joy and rest. And our God does not break His promises.

So what does it mean to ask, seek, and knock?

 Is it really as simple as Jesus makes it seem? The answer is a resounding yes. Despite what we may have been told, there is a childlike simplicity to asking God for whatever it is that we want. We don’t have to be timid or fearful of His response.

He anticipates and even wants us to come to Him with our requests. Philippians 4:6 says, “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.” Keeping our desires locked within us not only eats away at our confidence, but is ultimately damaging to our prayer life. Making our requests known to God is an essential part of our relationship with Him.

Consider John 15:7: “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.” Now, we must be careful not to take this verse out of context. When Jesus says “whatever you wish”, He does not mean that we will get everything that we want just by asking.

God is not a slot machine that we can trick into giving us endless fame and fortune. The most important, defining part of this verse lies at the beginning: “If you abide in me.” We are called to constantly live out our faith in Christ – staying in the word, being connected to His Church, and building His Kingdom.

If we are truly committed to Jesus, then our desires will start to align with His. We will learn to want His will for our lives, not our own selfish ways. And so Jesus is saying that when we seek out His plan, we will not be disappointed. When we ask for what we want, with faith and obedience to His sovereignty, He is willing to pour out His provision upon us.

After all, we are His sons and His daughters.
We serve a God who is not sparing in anything – not even His Son, whom He gave to pay the price for our sin.