Discipleship Devotional Study Guide – Becoming Like Christ – Day 112 – Matthew 7:7-8 – Ask, Seek, Knock – Growing As Disciples
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)
Last Resort?
I have had a bad habit. What’s that? For much of my life, I have thought of prayer as a last resort. How so? Well, if after an exhaustive effort on my part, I couldn’t solve my own problems, then I would turn to prayer. Or if some need was far beyond my ability to meet, then I would turn to prayer. What’s wrong with that approach to prayer? You want me to live in an intimate relationship with you. You want me to come to rely on you. You are my loving Heavenly Father. You want to give good gifts to me. It is your joy to hear and answer my prayer. Yes, it is my desire to give you what you will need in life.
Why is it that you have been so reluctant to pray? Do you think that I am too busy to listen to you? Do you believe that your request will be some kind of bother to me? Do you regard it as some kind of virtue to solve your own problems, without my help? I don’t have any good answers. I do know one thing. I have learned one thing. What’s that? I have learned that apart from you I can accomplish nothing of true and lasting and eternal value. I don’t want to live a life apart from you. I don’t my life to be an accumulation of check marks off of an insignificant to do list. What do you want? I want to live in an intimate relationship with you. I want to hear your voice. I want to live in an ongoing prayer dialogue with you. I want to talk with you about anything and everything. I want you to teach me how to pray. I want you to give me prayers to pray. I want to be able to pray prayers that you will hear and answer. Those are all very good desires. I’m sure that these desires come from you. Yes, they do.
What must you do if you want to live a life of prayer? What must you do if you want me to teach you to pray? What must you do if you want to be able to pray prayers that I will hear and answer? I must meet with you in prayer. I must set aside a time and a place when and where I can begin to develop a daily pattern of meeting with you in prayer. I must enter your prayer classroom. Will you do that? Will you ask, will you seek, will you knock in prayer? Yes Lord, I will. That will be very good.
Lord, I will not remain silent. I will not “go it alone”. I will rely on you. I will make my needs known to you. I will be persistent, and passionate in the prayers I pray. I will ask. I will seek. I will knock. I will wait patiently for you to hear and answer my prayers. Amen
Key Question… Why does the Lord want you to come to ask Him for what you need?
Living It Out… Pray to the Lord and ask Him for what you need.
Seeing It Happen… Have faith that the Lord will hear and answer the prayers you pray to Him.
Get Ready To Share… Share with another person or your small group what prayers you are praying to the Lord.
Prayer To Bless Others… May you keep on asking and seeking and knocking as you make your needs known to the Lord.
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