“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find;
knock and the door will be opened to you."
knock and the door will be opened to you."
Matthew 7:7
Sure seems like someone just found the "easy button" with this memory verse, doesn't it!?! Man, it would be so nice if we could just take this literally. I know my kids try to...every day. Obviously there's much more to it than the verse reveals on the surface. It speaks to our prayer life. I'll be honest. My prayer life is a little lacking. I pray...usually if someone asks me to, when there's a specific need. But, and I'm being brutally honest here, I find myself (more often than not) going through my days without praying. I can't say that I'm dis-connected from Him necessarily...I am in the Word and praising Him (lots of great music helps with that). But I rarely sit down and just pray. It's probably not a great thing, so I'm taking this opportunity to grow my faith here and dig in a little bit. Here we go.
Sometimes I do get stuck on the idea that God's plan is going to be what happens anyways, so why do I need to pray? But one thing I never really thought about was the idea that maybe God's timeless, infinite and all-knowing plan included my active role of prayer!?! C.H. Spurgeon said "Faith asks, Hope seeks, and love knocks". Following this trail of thought for a minute...I have faith, hope, and love. Those are all action words, right? So if I have those three...then an intrinsic part of that is, by extension, to actively ask, seek, and knock! If I have faith, and I'm walking in God's will, when I ask/pray for something it will be given to me. When I have hope, I am seeking God's will for me and He promised I will find it. And when I love (2 John 1:6) I can knock until He opens the door. Maybe it's not an "easy button". Maybe it's a key.
