Ask, Seek, Knock

Our family was circled around our dining room table for some good ol' fashioned game time when I inquired after the possibility of getting our own water purifier. We have fairly good rural water, but some of us are pretty particular when it comes to drinking only the best and cleanest out there, and buying bottled water starts to really add up after a while! I had been on the look out for some time and was under the impression the Berkey Light was well made and would be efficient for our needs. The Berkey Light is powerful enough to filter totally raw and untreated pond water, removing pathogenic bacteria, cysts, parasites, foul tastes and odors and all sorts of unhealthy minerals without removing the healthful and nutritional minerals we need. I was excited! As I started describing the features of the Berkey Light and pulled it up on the web for all to see, Dad looked up and said, "I think we have a water filter!" I stopped talking. We have one? All this time I've been searching for a good water filter, and there's been one right under my nose?? Dad quickly went to the basement whilst I mulled over the possibilities. A few minutes later, a large box was the first we saw of Dad as he returned and set it on the counter. On the front of the box were big, blue letters, "BERKLEY LIGHT WATER PURIFIER". We all looked at each other in unbelief! As I investigated the contents of the box, this was indeed the very same filter I was trying to convince Dad we should get! "I can hardly believe it!" I exclaimed. "Talk about fast shipping!" This $200+ filter has been just sitting in our basement - never used - for the past 12 years.

As we continued our game, one person mentioned, "Hey, Emily, you should write a blog post on how we have not because we ask not!" It was then I remembered this command: Ask, Seek, Knock. I had already been scheduled to share on this particular command, and now the Lord had provided a fun and exciting testimony of how He LOVES to provide for us, if we will but ask! I am amused to think I have time and time again ignorantly walked passed the very thing I desired. It was not until I asked, that it was given. "What else do we just need to . . . ask for?" I inquired after my parents. "Yeah," piped in my brother, "you got a Ferrari somewhere?!"

Before you settle on simply asking for all that you desire, though, let's study the rest of this command a little further. After all, Jesus didn't just say, "Ask." We have the responsibility to seek and knock. We are being called to action! God has given us eyes to see, hands to work, feet to run. Remember it is the slothful man who puts his hand in the dish and will not so much as bring it to his mouth again (Proverbs 19:24).

Arnold Pent reminded his family many times, "If you need anything, just ask for it and God will supply it, and if you want something that you don't necessarily need, obey the verse that states, 'Delight thyself in the Lord and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.'" God desires our fellowship, not just our quick prayers informing him of our wants. Is this perhaps why He has promised the desires of our heart if we will but spend our time focusing and delighting in Him? When you desire something, seek after the Lord! He will show you what to do and where to go. He will present the door on which you should knock, and He will open it. A door is symbolic of opportunity and hope. What lies over the threshold of your obedience?

Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.

Matthew 7:7-8

Helpful Verses to Memorize:

Matthew 7:9-11: Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?

James 4:3-4: Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts.Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.

John 14:14 If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it.

Psalm 81:10 I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it.

Psalm 34:10 The young lions do lack, and suffer hunger: but they that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing.