Hopefully asking, seeking, knocking

Date: 17 Octo­ber 2021 | Pre­a­cher:
Series: | Bible text: Matthew 7:7–11
Hint: This ser­mon has been machi­ne trans­la­ted. Plea­se note that we can­not accept any respon­si­bi­li­ty for the accu­ra­cy of the content.

Ask – recei­ve, seek – find, knock – it will be ope­ned to you. This is how sim­ply Jesus descri­bes the life of pray­er. Unfort­u­na­te­ly, this state­ment does not cor­re­spond very well with our expe­ri­ence. How often do we ask, seek, knock, but the­re is no respon­se. This is becau­se most of the time we pray with too much of an I fix­a­ti­on. Our Father in hea­ven wants to do us good and knows exact­ly what is good for us. But first we have to reco­g­ni­se what we should ask, seek and knock for. It is not pri­ma­ri­ly about having our earth­ly dreams ful­fil­led, but about ente­ring into a rela­ti­onship with God, asking Him for His near­ness, see­king Him and kno­cking on His door.


We often lose things, but unfort­u­na­te­ly not every search is suc­cessful. In the Ser­mon on the Mount, Jesus makes a state­ment that should actual­ly make every search suc­cessful as soon as we pray to God. Today’s ser­mon is about this bibli­cal passage.

Coming before God without reserve

«Ask and you shall recei­ve. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be ope­ned to you». (Matthew 7:7 NLB). When Jesus talks here about pray­er, that is, tal­king to God, and what effects it can have, it sounds quite simp­le. Ask and you will recei­ve. Seek and you will find. Knock and a door will be ope­ned to you. This sounds too good to be true. If this is real­ly so, then all pro­blems, needs, worries and fears are gone. I hard­ly have any worries, then I ask God and bang, the pro­blem vanis­hes into thin air. If I ever lose some­thing again or am loo­king for some­thing – Zack, I will find it. And if I’m out late some­whe­re and loo­king for a place to stay, all I have to do is knock on a door, of cour­se of the house I like best, and I’m imme­dia­te­ly let in and offe­red a bed. This sounds too good to be true. I think it sound­ed the same to Jesus» lis­ten­ers. So simple?

But Jesus rein­forces his state­ment even more, ins­tead of sof­tening it as we might expect. «For ever­yo­ne who asks recei­ves, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be ope­ned.» (Matthew 7:8 NGÜ). In the first pro­mi­se in ver­se seven we should actively ask, seek and knock and we will recei­ve, find and be ope­ned. So we actively do some­thing and recei­ve the result wit­hout our doing any­thing. The state­ment of Jesus in ver­se eight is com­ple­te­ly dif­fe­rent. Whoe­ver actively asks, actively seeks and actively knocks, recei­ves, finds and is ope­ned. Pray­er as descri­bed by Jesus has acti­ve effects and a clear result. Jesus calls us here inten­si­ve­ly to pray­er. Pray­er that is hop­eful and has an effect. Fol­lo­wers of Jesus not only have a good fri­end in him, but also a hea­ven­ly Father in God. The addres­see of such hop­eful pray­ers is God, the hea­ven­ly Father.

In his ser­mon on this bibli­cal pas­sa­ge, Micha­el Herbst makes two points about the direc­tion a pray­er to God can take. One is for spi­ri­tu­al breadth, the other for chan­ge. When fol­lo­wers of Jesus ask, seek and knock on their hea­ven­ly Father, this broa­dens their visi­on. By pray­ing to God, they are actively asking for things that they them­sel­ves lack, but it lifts their gaze towards God. Just as a child goes to its father with ever­y­thing that con­cerns it, child­ren of God can go to their father and ask him for ever­y­thing. If one asks God, then this also chan­ges many things. On the one hand, it chan­ges one’s view of cer­tain things, on the other hand, it can also widen one’s view of others. When in pray­er not only one’s own needs are brought to God, but also the con­cerns of other peo­p­le, then this broa­dens one’s own view and chan­ges one’s per­cep­ti­on of other people.

To remind fol­lo­wers of Jesus how good the hea­ven­ly Father is to them, Jesus points to the rela­ti­onship of par­ents to their child­ren. «You par­ents – when your child­ren ask you for a pie­ce of bread, do you give them a stone ins­tead? Or if they ask you for a fish, do you give them a sna­ke? Of cour­se not! If you, who are sin­ners, know how to do good to your child­ren, how much more will your Father in hea­ven do good to tho­se who ask him?» (Matthew 7:9–11 NLB). Par­ents are con­cer­ned about giving their child­ren the bare neces­si­ties. Bread and fish were stap­les at that time. So when child­ren ask their par­ents for food, they will not meet them with unneces­sa­ry harsh­ness, for which the stone can stand. Yes, par­ents will not expo­se their child­ren to any dan­gers eit­her. They will guard and pro­tect them and not give them a sna­ke which could be poi­so­no­us. Jesus» con­clu­si­on leads to the fact that the hea­ven­ly Father deals with His child­ren even more lovin­g­ly and careful­ly than we humans can. We may not always suc­ceed in doing the right thing, but the basic tenor is usual­ly posi­ti­ve. But God as the hea­ven­ly Father always wants the best for His child­ren (Romans 8:28).

The (other) answer of God

When we hear the words of Jesus, despi­te all the opti­mism in the state­ment, it is dif­fi­cult to real­ly belie­ve it. Becau­se expe­ri­ence rather shows the silence of God. God is not a wish machi­ne. Peo­p­le pray to God, per­haps even cry out to him, but unfort­u­na­te­ly he does not ans­wer. This can lead to tur­ning away from God. For how can Jesus make such state­ments and say that the hea­ven­ly Father does good to tho­se who ask him, if this does not cor­re­spond at all to the world of life and experience?

This view comes abo­ve all from the fact that hea­ring God is limi­t­ed only to the con­cre­te ful­film­ent of a wish. Ever­y­thing else is declared to be evil. Whe­ther the wish is ful­fil­led dif­fer­ent­ly or not at all. Often an ans­wer to pray­er, espe­ci­al­ly if it turns out dif­fer­ent­ly than expec­ted, is not per­cei­ved as such. The focus is usual­ly only on what is not ans­we­red by God. What he does posi­tively, on the other hand, is not per­cei­ved. The late Arch­bi­shop of the Church of Eng­land, Wil­liam Temp­le, sum­ma­ri­sed this as fol­lows: «If I pray, this or that hap­pens by chan­ce; if I stop pray­ing, not­hing hap­pens by chan­ce.» Just as par­ents know exact­ly what their child­ren need, our hea­ven­ly Father knows exact­ly what we need. If God ans­wers a pray­er dif­fer­ent­ly than expec­ted, it is becau­se this is bet­ter for us than if He were to ful­fil our wish.

The other ful­film­ent of our wish is not yet such a big hurd­le. But not having our wish ful­fil­led shakes our trust in God. It makes us doubt a good God. Espe­ci­al­ly when we are per­so­nal­ly deep­ly affec­ted. In August 2017, I recei­ved a pho­ne call from a fri­end. Joyful­ly I picked up, but what he had to tell me pul­led the rug from under my feet. He told me that his flat­ma­te, one of my best fri­ends, had died in a car acci­dent while on holi­day in the USA. This news left me in shock. I was deep­ly affec­ted and sad­den­ed. In this situa­ti­on, I cried out to God in pray­er. I accu­sed him. I ban­ged on his door, hoping that he could make this news not true. I asked God to explain to me why. But this has not hap­pen­ed until today. To this day, it is a mys­tery to me why my col­le­ague died at the age of 24. Many expl­ana­ti­ons end in emp­tin­ess. Alt­hough this is the case, I am also con­vin­ced that God can also say no some­ti­mes. But this no is no less loving than a yes. This ten­si­on has to be endu­red. For me, the loss was extre­me­ly dif­fi­cult, but I also noti­ce how my life has chan­ged sin­ce then. I have had a chan­ge of per­spec­ti­ve. In retro­s­pect, I was able to reco­g­ni­se, even through the pain, what is writ­ten in the Let­ter to the Romans: «And we know that for tho­se who love God and belong to him accor­ding to his will, all things work tog­e­ther for good» (Romans 8:28 NLB).

When our asking, see­king and kno­cking does not come true, it lea­ves us with unans­we­red ques­ti­ons and often hurt. But per­haps it is also becau­se we are asking for the wrong thing. Micha­el Herbst for­mu­la­tes this won­derful­ly in his ser­mon on this pas­sa­ge. «I’ll try it this way: The pro­mi­se Jesus makes does not app­ly to ever­y­thing we expect from God! But if we seek God our­sel­ves, we shall find him. When we ask him for his near­ness, we never ask in vain. When we knock on his door, per­haps timid­ly and for the first time, it is not bar­red to us. God opens the door and we look into a bea­ming face. God looks at us and laug­hin­gly calls out to us: «It’s gre­at that you’­ve come! You are wel­co­me! Let’s see what good I can do for you».

From the beginning again

In order for us to under­stand this call to pray­er, the Our Father must be kept in mind. This always reso­na­tes some­whe­re. Espe­ci­al­ly with such dif­fi­cult issues. The­r­e­fo­re, we pray to our Father in hea­ven that his will be done, not my will. Jesus intro­du­ced this pray­er in the same dis­cour­se. In Luke’s Gos­pel, too, this speech of asking is lis­ted. But ins­tead of mere­ly spea­king of a good deed, it is per­so­ni­fied. «But if even you sin­ful peo­p­le know how to do good to your child­ren, how much soo­ner will your Father in hea­ven give the Holy Spi­rit to tho­se who ask him». (Luke 11:13 NLB). The Holy Spi­rit is good­ness in per­son. He is the hel­per, com­fort­er, sub­sti­tu­te. God as a loving Father does not sim­ply take us out of a situa­ti­on or lea­ve us alo­ne in it, but places the Holy Spi­rit at our side. If we find this chan­ge of per­spec­ti­ve dif­fi­cult, we can pray the fol­lo­wing pray­er with Charles Had­don Spur­ge­on. «Lord, I want to think more of You than of my own pray­er; more of Your Son than of my own faith; more of Your Holy Spi­rit than of all the rest of Your good gifts.» 

God meets us as a loving Father. Such a father wants only the best for his child­ren. But this also means that he with­holds cer­tain things from his child­ren. He pro­tects them from cer­tain things and allows other things to hap­pen to them so that they learn from them. A loving father is not unlo­ving by set­ting limits for his child­ren. No, he even shows his love for the child­ren by doing so. Nevert­hel­ess, he does not take every hurd­le out of the way, becau­se other­wi­se the child­ren will not beco­me matu­re peo­p­le. God is the same way.

In one sto­ry that Jesus tells, the side of the loving Father is par­ti­cu­lar­ly evi­dent. It is the para­ble of the pro­di­gal son (Luke 15:11–32). This sto­ry shows us much of God’s per­spec­ti­ve and can be a help in lea­ving the earth­ly per­spec­ti­ve. A young man wants to see some­thing of the world and the­r­e­fo­re recei­ves an advan­ce inhe­ri­tance from his father. With the money he dis­ap­pears and squan­ders it all. After the money is gone, so are his fri­ends. So he looks for a job and finds one as a day labou­rer. The­re he ear­ns so litt­le that he can bare­ly keep hims­elf ali­ve. In this situa­ti­on, he remem­bers his kind father, who tre­ats even the most poor­ly edu­ca­ted workers well. He the­r­e­fo­re deci­des to return to him. He wants to work for his father as a labou­rer. So he sets out to knock on his father’s door. For our ser­mon topic today, the father’s rec­tion is very exciting.

«So he retur­ned home to his father. He was still far away when his father saw him coming. Full of love and com­pas­si­on, he ran to meet his son, embra­ced him and kissed him». (Luke 15:20 NLB). His father sees him from afar. He does not lock his doors or send someone to turn him away. No, he runs towards his son with open arms. In the cul­tu­re of the time, run­ning was not appro­pria­te for a father. Espe­ci­al­ly not for someone who owned pro­per­ty. Only child­ren or workers ran. This puts him on a level with his impo­ve­ris­hed son. The father recei­ves him as a loving father and wel­co­mes him.

This loving Father is the same one Jesus spo­ke of at the begin­ning. He wants to do good to you. Even if this is bey­ond your ima­gi­na­ti­on. This Father in hea­ven is wai­ting for you. For you to ask, to seek and to knock on his door. What is stop­ping you?

Possible questions for the small group

Read the Bible text: Matthew 7:7–11

  1. What about asking, see­king and kno­cking on God’s door in your life?
  2. Whe­re has God dis­ap­poin­ted you by not acting as you had hoped?
  3. How have you alre­a­dy expe­ri­en­ced God’s work in your life? Whe­re has it come out even bet­ter than you asked for?
  4. What pre­vents you from asking God, see­king Him and kno­cking on His door?
  5. Is it your turn to knock on God’s door and let him into your life?