Let’s read Matthew 7:7-11: “Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you, For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Of if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? 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!” (NKJV).

In this passage, believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are encouraged to come to their heavenly Father for all that they need. The words of James 1:17 come to mind: “Every good gift and perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.” Our heavenly Father LOVES TO GIVE, but we must come to Him with our needs. We are not to be passive, but actively ASKING for our needs to be met, SEEKING His will and KNOCKING for doors to be opened. If we do, these verses assure us that He will surely respond by GIVING us what we need, MAKING HIS WILL KNOWN to us, and OPENING DOORS to serve Him.

Matthew uses the example of an earthly father to impress this truth upon us, for if our human parents (who can fail at times because of their evil and fallen nature) will meet our basic needs when we ask them, “how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!”

Before we close this short meditation, we must emphasize that this passage is not a “blank check” for believers. In other words, we can’t ASK for anything and expect it to be given to us. We must come to our heavenly Father in the right spirit and with the right petitions. We must:

*PRAY IN FAITH…James 1:5-6 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But LET HIM ASK IN FAITH, WITH NO DOUBTING, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.”

*PRAY ACCORDING TO HIS WILL…1st John 5:14-15 declare: “Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.”  (220.5)  (DO)