Matthew 7: 7-11
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 11
If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children,
how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to
those who ask Him!”
Tonight in my community group, we
were talking about this verse and just kinda discussing what we felt
the Lord was doing in our lives. We talked about a lot of things, but
some things really resonated with me. I wanted to try and write them
down in attempts to clarify them in my head. One thing a girl
mentioned, was that a lot of times we hear this verse and we
automatically think, ask/seek/knock…if we ask then the Lord will give
us what we ask for kind of philosophy. She stated that she personally
didn’t think that was how the verse was intended. She said, “ask,
seek, knock-so that YOUR vision would be my vision. I ask and seek and
knock so that the Lord’s vision would be opened to me in my mind.”
WOW…I just thought that was such a new spin on this verse….instead
of asking, seeking, and knocking-with the end thought being, “how will
the Lord work this out for ME” we should be asking, seeking, and
knocking with the end thought being, “Lord, give me YOUR vision.”
Another thing we do in my
community group when we are focusing on a group of verses is that after
reading the verses out loud and discussing them somewhat, we are asked
to look at the verses again and think about what word or phrase in
those verses really sticks out in your mind. After pondering for a few
minutes we go around the circle and speak just the word or phrase that
sticks out. I ABSOLUTELY LOVE doing this because it actually becomes a
poem of sorts and it is so neat to see how the Holy Spirit writes that
poem! And tonight, as we went around the circle a few “phrases” really
jumped out at me! The girl sitting to my left said, “seeks”. The phrase
that stuck out in MY mind was “he who seeks finds” and the guy sitting
beside me to the right said “Father” So, when put that together you
get, ‘seeks- he who seeks finds Father’. Then another girl said, “If
you then, being evil” and the girl sitting beside HER said, “Knock”, so
you get ‘If you then, being evil- knock!’
We also discussed the quote,
“Intimacy will not exist without commitment.” We talked about the fact
that we can’t just pray for the sake of praying. (e.g. pray before a
meal because it’s what you are supposed to do, or pray before bed
because it helps you fall asleep) but, instead REAL prayer–intimate
prayer involves commitment. In order to be intimate with someone or
something, you have to be committed! And to be committed means
trusting, being honest, and sometimes giving up control. Have you ever
been in that place in your life where you feel like the Lord is being
overly silent….as if you are in this void waiting for an answer that
seems to never come? Well, have you ever thought that maybe it’s not
that the Lord isn’t fully committed to us but that He has ALREADY told
us what to do, we just haven’t done it yet? Maybe He is just sitting
back, waiting on US thinking, “Ok, I told you what to do, so until you
do what I asked, I’m going to sit here and be silent and not give you
any more directions until you obey direction #1.” Ahh Ha! Now I get
it…I guess this really just hit home with me because I know what the
Lord has told me to do….but I haven’t done it yet. So until I do…He isn’t gonna give me additional directions.
I hope all that made sense…it’s ok if it doesn’t because this is me
thinking on paper, and I believe writing has helped me sort it out in
my head somewhat.
