BEING PERSISTENT
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Opening Prayer
Loving Father, wherever I go today, whatever I do, make me aware of your presence and ready to do your will.
Read MATTHEW 7:7—12
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
Matthew
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.
8 For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
9 “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?
10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
11 If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!
12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Reflect
In what ways is your prayer life reflected in your confidence that God listens and responds to every prayer?
Now Jesus returns to the vital issue of practical prayer. Helpfully, the English translation of the first letters of the three prayer imperatives spells out ASK. Their present imperative tense emphasizes their continuous repetition. Behind the closed door, we need to keep on asking, seeking, knocking. Trusting in our Father, who knows our needs, we must necessarily grow in our faith dependency. Gloriously, each imperative leads to the positives that will be given, will find, will be opened. Even the worst father gives good gifts to his children, so how much more will our heavenly Father give us? He will respond.
However, this is not to commend a slot-machine process by which God is guaranteed to answer our prayers: simply put a request in and the answer comes out. Our relationship with God is complex because prayer requires developing a two-way speaking/listening relationship. This takes time and spiritual discipline. One Christian leader confessed: ‘I am profoundly grateful to God that he did not grant me certain things for which I asked and that he shut certain doors in my face.’ How much we need to mature in our prayer lives. For me, this means keeping a journal, including a list of ASK prayers, which I believe to be in my Father’s will. Yes, answers result in thanksgiving, but when something doesn’t happen, I keep on praying, knowing that God has much more to teach me in the waiting.
Verse 12 is special. Often called the ‘Golden Rule,’ it expresses in a positive way what had been previously stated negatively: ‘What is hateful to you, do not do to anyone else.’1 Jesus commands positive action: ‘do to others what you would have them do to you.’ It is love’s pre-emptive strike. This is not a hopeless ideal, but the Jesus Christ new creation way of living.
Apply
When was the last time you reviewed your ASK prayer habit? Could you improve your asking and waiting?
Closing prayer
Lord, please give me a greater desire to use the privilege of prayer. Give me persistence in seeking you, courage to ask the impossible, and trusting patience as I wait for your answers.
1 Rabbi Hillel, died 10 AD, Shabbat 31a:6.
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