PROMISES OF JESUS CONCERNING PRAYER
Matthew 7:7-11

When I was a child, one of the very first television shows I remembered seeing was the Our Gang/Little Rascals.  I used to enjoy the antics of Alfalfa and Spanky and their crazy group.  It was a humorous, yet realistic picture of an age that has long since disappeared.  One episode that I remembered well began in an orphanage run by a heartless overseer.  You saw the children gagging as they ate their mush.  A friend came to their rescue and invited them to his home for a birthday party.  One cannot forget the expressions on their faces as they dug into cake and ice cream served with love and compassion.

Somehow that television scene came to my mind as I thought of this passage in Matthew 7:7-11.  I am afraid that, at times, our picture of God is like that of the cruel overseer in the orphanage.  We live our lives – gagging on the “mush” set before us.  But Jesus tells us that it is not like that.  He responds to us with love and compassion, just like a father does for the desires of his children. 

Friends, this passage on prayer is concerned with the prayers of the believer only.  I am reminded of those words from the Apostle John, and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight (1 John 3:22).  The great Reformist John Calvin expressed that thought this way:  Nothing is better adapted to excite us to prayer than a full conviction that we shall be heard.  And Martin Luther wrote:  God knows that we are timid and shy, that we feel unworthy and unfit to present our needs to God….  We think that God is so great and we are so tiny that we do not dare to pray….  That is why Christ wants to lure us away from such timid thoughts, to remove our doubts, and to have us go ahead confidently and boldly.

These promises are attached to the commands:  ask, seek, and knock.  These verbs are in the present imperative tense, implying a command to continuously do something.  We can translate them as:  keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking. 

There are several implications in these commands.  First there is the need for persistence in prayer.  We need persistence in asking for those thing that Jesus has just taught us.  Remember those words in Matthew 6:33, But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you.  We also need persistence in our seeking for God Himself.  Oh that we might know Him and the power of His resurrection as Paul expressed in Philippians 3.  Friends, can we ever have too much of Christ? Finally, we need persistence in knocking at heaven’s throne room.  We need to enter that room with confidence and boldness.

In our next study, we will continue our focus upon these promises of prayer.  Plan to phone in so we can share together.

Father, Thank You for these precious thoughts concerning prayer.  Forgive us for failing to remember that all of the resources of Your heaven are available for us.  As James admonished us, we do not have because we have failed to ask.  Help us to better ask; to better seek; and to better knock.  We pray this in Christ’s name.  Amen. 

 

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