Ask, seek and knock
“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” (Luke 11:9).
The Lord gives us a marvellous invitation to ask, seek and knock. Physically, we ask with our voices, we seek with our legs and eyes, we knock with our hands. What the Lord asks us to do He was no stranger to Himself. In Luke 2:46, as a child, He sat with the scholars in the temple asking them questions. In Luke 24:17, He asked His grieving disciples, “What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?” During His ministry, He was continually seeking the lost. He walked to Sychar to see the woman by the well (John 4). He walked to Jericho to see Zacchaeus and declare, “The Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Luke 19:10). In love and grace, he gently knocked on the hearts of people to bring them to salvation: “Lydia … whose heart the Lord opened” (Acts 16:14 AV). He banged on the heart of the Philippian jailer for it to be opened, as it did with the cry, “What must I do to be saved?” (Acts 16:30). At the end of the Bible, we are reminded of the Lord knocking on the door of our hearts, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). The Lord is the greatest teacher of what it means to ask, seek and knock.
We also come with worshipping hearts and confident faith to ask, seek and knock. Prior to the Lord saying these words in Luke 11:9, a Roman centurion had asked Him to heal his servant. Roman forces occupied Israel. They were not a humble race. But this soldier, in whose heart God had already worked, approached the Saviour via the elders of the Jews to ask that Jesus would have mercy, not on him, but on his servant. As Jesus approached his home, the centurion sent a message to Him, “I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof. Therefore I did not even think myself worthy to come to You. But say the word, and my servant will be healed” (Luke 7: 6-7). What extraordinary humility and what astonishing faith! Amongst His people who were rejecting Him, what joy the Lord had in seeing such faith in the centurion’s heart!
What the centurion did not understand then, but I suspect by the grace of God he came to know, was that the Lord wants us to come into His presence. He has no greater joy in us than to know our hearts are open to Him in worship and holy confidence. He invites us to come boldly to the throne of grace. The centurion teaches us how to come in bold humility, willing worship and utter confidence. The Lord asks us to come to Him, “Come unto Me.” He seeks our fellowship, and appeals to our hearts to be always opened to Him.
This glorious relationship we have with our Saviour is the basis upon which, each day, we come into God’s presence and ask in His name (John 14:13-14). There is nothing too small or too great for us to ask. He invites us to seek His face and learn the wisdom that we need to guide our steps. And we knock upon the door of grace to discover His open ear, His open heart and His open hand.
