Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened (see Matthew 7:7-9 - Amplified Bible).
Jesus tells us again and again that he desires us to persist in prayer. Short prayers uttered and quickly forgotten are not necessarily wrong. By infusing our day with such prayer we come closer to the command of scripture to pray always (see Ephesians 6:18, First Thessalonians 5:17). When we do so we begin to feel as though we really are living in close proximity to a God who is always with us. But such brief prayers are meant to be rooted in Kingdom priorities and in confidence in the Father.
seek and you will find;
In commanding us to seek Jesus alluded to his early teaching that we ought to seek first the Kingdom of God. Rather than worrying about food or drink or clothing, rather than be anxious, Jesus told his listeners that if his Kingdom was their priority that "all these things will be given you besides" (see Matthew 6:33), and that they could be confident of this because "Your heavenly Father knows that you need them all" (see Matthew 6:32).
For everyone who asks, receives; and the one who seeks, finds;
and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
We are called to desire the coming of God's Kingdom into the world, and to keep desiring it, even if it never come in fullness during the course of our lives. We are called to submit our own wills and desires to this plan. It is a better good than any other good we desire, and brings with it any goods that are truly worth having. But we tend to prefer our own wills. The need for food and clothing can seem immediate and pressing, taking precedence over the Kingdom in our hearts. But the reason we must ask and keep asking is so that we can eventually learn to trust that God is good, that he is a Father who loves his children. He wants us to be so confident of the goodness of his will for us that we don't have to worry about being forgotten or feel that must fend for ourselves.
Which one of you would hand his son a stone
when he asked for a loaf of bread,
or a snake when he asked for a fish?
When we seek the Kingdom God will keep us fed, and work through us to feed the world. Jesus demonstrated this himself by trusting in the Father to multiply loaves and fishes so that the crowd would not need to depart from him. He himself crushed the snake the threatened us and gave his own body as bread for the life of the world. Imagine if Peter and Andrew had insisted that Jesus simply continue to give them large catches of fish day after day rather than following him to seek his Kingdom. Had they thus sought first their own lives they may never have gained the new life they found in Christ. Yet in following Christ they were not immediately made perfect. For them and for all people seeking the Kingdom is something which requires purification. We too must loosen our grip on lesser goals and trust in the Father to provide.
how much more will your heavenly Father give good things
to those who ask him.
We do keep asking the Father for all that we need, not only abstract and specifically religious things. But these individual intercessions ought to become rooted in a persistent desire and prayer for the coming of the Kingdom, which is the good above all particular goods. When our prayers are rooted in this goal, rooted in the heart of a loving Father, they become powerful.
“God of Abraham, God of Isaac, and God of Jacob, blessed are you.
Help me, who am alone and have no help but you,
for I am taking my life in my hand.
Esther chose to put the good of the Israel before her desire to protect even her own life, trusting in the Lord in spite of the her powerful enemies, in spite of the fact that she had every reason to fear. She persisted "from morning until evening" because she herself needed to come into properly alignment with and confidence in the Lord's will. Probably at first she was tempted to pray, 'Lord, solve this problem without involving me'. But she came to accept the truth that the Lord desired to bless his kingdom precisely through her and her involvement. He himself gave her the confidence and strength to play her part.
Now help me, who am alone and have no one but you,
O LORD, my God.
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