Matthew 7:7
“Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you.”
Where this sits
From the Sermon on the Mount. The illustration that follows is about a father who would not hand his son a stone when he asked for bread.
Reflection
Three verbs, and they escalate in effort. Asking costs a sentence. Seeking costs time and attention — you have to go looking, and looking implies not immediately finding. Knocking costs persistence and a certain nerve, because knocking means standing at a door that is currently shut, in front of somebody, waiting.
The Greek tense adds something English drops: all three are continuous. Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. This is not a formula for a single successful transaction. It describes a posture maintained over time, which is the honest experience of anyone who has prayed about something serious.
And what follows the promise is the argument for it. Jesus does not appeal to God's power, or to the reader's sincerity. He appeals to fatherhood — if you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father. The logic is from the lesser to the greater, and it depends on the reader admitting that they, imperfect as they are, would not hand a hungry child a stone.
Which locates the real difficulty. Most people who struggle to pray do not doubt that God can. They suspect he would rather not. The passage answers that suspicion not with theology but with an image from an ordinary kitchen.
- Theme:
- Prayer
- Book:
- Matthew