This is the Truth Network. Encouraging Prayer. God offers an open invitation for His people to talk with Him at any time about anything. On Encouraging Prayer, Dr. James Banks, author of the bestselling Prayers for Prodigals and many other books on prayer, provides weekly Biblical insight to help you learn to love to pray. And now, here's James. So today on Encouraging Prayer, we're going to talk about going after more than just blessing when we pray. What does that mean? Well, everything, right, James?
It really does. Today we're going to look at Jesus' commands and promises in just a few verses of the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 7, verses 7 through 11. And they're familiar verses, but I think we're going to have a fresh take on them today.
So let's go ahead and read them. Jesus says, Ask, and it will be given to you. Seek, and you will find.
Knock, and the door will be open to you. For everyone who asks, receives. The one who seeks, finds. And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?
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? So the thing that I'd like to look at in this passage is the progression in the asking. The progression. So what does that mean? Well, first, this is going to be a two-part talk.
We'll look at it this week and next week because there's so much in it. But, you know, it's like you were saying, this is everything. So much of what it means to really pray flows out of these few simple verses from Jesus.
So let's just start. Verse 7, ask. We know that when Jesus says that, it's a command. And also you may have heard that it's a command that implies continuous action.
In other words, in the original language, let's get grammatical for a second, it's in the present active imperative. Which means keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. So God intends our prayers not to be this one and done thing. You know, I said my prayers in the morning and I'm done with it.
He wants us to keep coming back to him throughout the day. And this is where the progression part comes in. So what we see here in Jesus' teaching are actually three different levels of prayer.
And each one comes with a command that also comes with a promise. And again, of course, the first one is ask. And when you look at asking, Jesus is basically talking about requesting in the general sense of the word. You know, you could be asking about anything at all.
And that's part of his point. It's that, you know, don't think that God is so great that he doesn't want to talk to you. God is so great that he wants to talk to you. So you can talk about anything and everything with him. So go ahead and ask.
Yeah, it's beautiful. And so, you know, and one of the things I asked the most often is just what does this mean? That scripture, that scripture, you know, what does that mean?
It's pretty simple. Yeah, yeah. And so it starts in this general place of just, again, asking about anything and then you go to the place of seeking, which is to go deeper. And when that word is used, again in the original language, it can mean to crave, to demand even, to look with a purpose. In other words, what you see is that you're asking is getting serious, you know, that you're really – yeah, go ahead. No, I was just thinking about the, you know, all the things that people go seeking in his one parable. He talks about the lady that loses her dowry or, you know, looking after the lost sheep. And, you know, those people are seeking.
Right, right. And think about what Jesus says about seeking first the kingdom of God because I think that plays in here as well. You know, this is praying with passion and praying with purpose. And so, you know, you're, again, really going after something. And the interesting thing is then what comes next? You know, of course, again, these come with a promise, ask, you will receive, seek and you will find.
And then if you skip down a little, Jesus, he doesn't take any prisoners. He says that, you know, compares us as human parents with God and says, even though you're evil, you know, how much more will your Heavenly Father give good gifts to those who ask him? And so, in other words, we can ask, understanding that good things do come as a result of it may not be exactly, you know, what we're asking for, but it may be and it may be even better. So, anyhow, you know, there are those responses, but then it goes deeper still. And a clue to how deep it goes comes in Luke, when Luke shares this very same teaching from the Sermon on the Mount, and he says, you know, if you though you were evil, Jesus words, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give? Do you know what he says there?
No, I forgot. Well, in Luke, he says, how much more will your Father in Heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him? So in Matthew, it's good gifts, but in Luke, it's God will give the Holy Spirit. And so that shows us what's coming next. And I'm really excited about that because there's so much in it, we can't really go there until next week. But let's just talk about this a little bit more.
Any thoughts on this, Robby? Well, I love the idea of progression. I've traced that before to thinking, like, even every morning, like this very morning, you start out wanting to come into his presence and like you said, what you're really seeking is to feel like your prayers aren't going off the roof. And the more you go, the closer you begin to get. And again, just feeling like his presence is kind of the object of the prayer to begin with. Oh, there it is.
Yeah, that's the direction we're moving in. And that only comes if we're persevering, if we're continuing to ask, you know, again, if we're seeking and going deeper. And so that gets to the place of knocking. Why don't you wrap us up?
I would love to. Lord, oh, Lord, thank you for this progression, as there's nothing like having a door open to the face of the ultimate friend, that would be you, Lord. Help us to understand, help us to go deeper, excited about that as we ask, we seek, and then we knock on that door looking for you. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Amen. You can hear more from Pastor James by visiting his website, jamesbanks.org, or by visiting Peace Church in Durham, North Carolina. May God bless you and encourage you as you pray. This is the Truth Network.
