“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “ Matthew 7:7
Then He said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and goes to him at midnight and says to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; 7 and from inside he answers and says, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it will be opened. 11 Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? 12 Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? 13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?” Luke 11:5-13
So, what can God do for me? The answer is that God can do anything that you need Him to do. He can move mountains, heal illness, forgive your sin, light your path in the dark, infuse you with joy in the most difficult of times, give you peace when you are surrounded by turmoil and strife, and feed your soul, your mind and your body when you do not have the resources. I know this because the scripture says so and He has comforted and fed me many times.
It is a hard thing for we humans to consider our needs as a God thing and not from the urgency of the flesh. The needs of our physical being easily over ride the needs of our true self and our true self is then easily pushed to a place behind the dark. We can see in the dark but the details are hidden, the truth is hidden and, after a bit, we accept skinned knees, broken toes and bruised foreheads as the norm. Pain becomes an easily tolerated nuisance and we call it all normal.
In the dark, we feel pain and know that something is there. We can’t see but we can touch it. Over time we accept this reality as our present and come to believe a lie. We are broken. We live in pain and pretend that the scars are more becoming than our true self, the self as God created it to be.
We love God, we worship Him and give Him back just a bit of what He has lavished on us. But we are never quite healed because we never release our broken selves into His hands. We build churches, preach sermons, create programs, take credit for paying His way, teach classes, pity the poor, read books, listen to sermons, produce radio and TV programs, bless our meals, live fashionably, but we seldom relentlessly seek His presence, the Presence, and we rarely experience a truly profound relationship with Jesus.
Ask, seek, knock...Ask, seek, knock...Ask, seek, knock... Ask, seek, knock...Ask, seek, knock...Ask seek, knock….Ask, seek, knock...Ask, seek, knock. His grace is free. His grace is freeing. His grace is paid for in full with no cost to the recipient. His grace is given to all and He continually reaches out to those who reject, disrespect, or ignore Him. He helps, guides, and protects us all. But to know God, live life in His kingdom, receive His peace, His joy and His love, we must receive the invitation to crucify the flesh on the cross with Jesus and seek more than knowledge. As we ask, seek and knock, we receive more than grace. We receive relationship with Jesus; and as this relationship becomes the prime relationship of our life, we find that we experience healing and a new purity in all of our relationships. Forgiveness becomes the norm and Jesus reign