Matthew 7:7-12, part of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount could be described by just three words, “Keep It Up!
We are to keep asking, keep seeking (searching), keep knocking. The promise that accompanies those exhortations is, “Everyone who asks receives, and the one who searches (seeks) finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” [vs 8 HCSB]
I remember once as a Hospice Chaplain I was called in to be with a mother whose young daughter died suddenly. She asked what each of us would ask, “Why?”
When her pastor arrived, she continued to ask her question, and his response was that as Christians we are not to ask why. A few days later she showed up at my office and told me she could not seem to stop asking why, but she also could not talk to her pastor about it. After we talked for a while, I told her to keep asking God to either tell her why this happened or take away her need to ask.
She came back more than a year later and told me that God did not answer her why question, but about a month prior she realized she no longer needed to know why.
Sometimes when we ask, search and knock, we do not get exactly what we expect, but we get something equal or better from God. The thing is not to quit.
I really need to think about this today. When I pray, “Am I quitting too soon?”
