Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.
“Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

• Matthew 7:7-12

“Of everything that Jesus had to say on the subject of prayer, there are perhaps no more famous or confusing words than the three simple verbs-—ask, seek, and knock—he uses in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 7. On the one hand, they issue an empowering and straightforward invitation, and on the other hand, this invitation doesn’t deliver consistent, predictable results. Was this false advertising? Did Jesus overpromise? Or is his original meaning lost in translation across centuries, traditions, and translations?
“In these three verbs, Jesus is naming the trail markers on the common prayer journey, a path tread by men and women of faith stretching all the way back to the beginning. Prayer is a journey that starts with need and ends in relationship. When we are born into this world, our first words are unintelligible cries of pain and need. Babies weep and wail before they learn coherent speech, before they learn relational trust in the mother and father who brought them into this world. Likewise, prayer is primal language, instinctively emerging from us in the face of pain and suffering. Need first drives us to our knees, but relationship keeps us there. That’s what Jesus was getting at—the deeper invitation hidden in three simple verbs—ask, seek, and knock.
“Ask refers to the requests that bring us to prayer. …  When we find ourselves in a story we don’t recognize, with no way back to the plot we thought we were living, we pray. We ‘ask.’
“Seek is a word peppered throughout Scripture that often refers to God himself. We are instructed to seek God through the stories of kings and judges, the poetry of the psalms, and the cries of the prophets.
“Knock, Jesus’ final verb in this teaching on prayer in the Sermon on the Mount, is the destination of the prayer journey that begins in need. Biblically speaking, knock prompts the imagery of table fellowship.”

• Tyler Staton, Praying like Monks, Living like Fools

Rev. Staton makes a great analogy between a newborn and us asking, seeking, and knocking.  After all, any parent might relate to the analogy.  I do not make that a definite relation.  I have seen so many “parents” birth their children and then seem to say “Okay, kid, you are on your own.”  But when parent becomes a verb and you work at it, you can relate, hmmm, you can see the relationship and watch its development.

But, Jesus states in John 3 that we must be born again, that is, born of the Spirit.  With that new birth, we may be able to immediately articulate our needs by a means other than screaming, but I wonder if God hears nothing but screaming at first.  We have no idea what to ask for in the beginning of our new life, we just ask.  If we came to Christ without a strong background in biblical studies, we may not be able to know if we have found what we seek or we found a cheap copy that will lead us astray.  And if we are led astray, we might not establish a relationship with Jesus when knocking at the wrong door.

Rev. David Robertson has written two books recently (2019 and 2023) that use this concept in the titles.  The first is A.S.K., real world questions / real word answers.  The second is S.E.E.K., more real world questions / more real word answers.  I wonder what the third book in the series will be called.  Of course, the A.S.K. in the first book stands for ask, seek, and knock.  S.E.E.K. stands for search, educate, engage, knock.  The books are ingenious in that they take questions sent in by young people.  He then provides a biblical answer, Bible references to back it up, further reading suggestions, if you are really interested, and he ends with prayer.  Fifty-two questions in each book.  This plug is unsolicited, but in each case, I preordered the book and it was shipped on the first day of availability.

But when our boys were children, they disappointed me.  My older son always seemed to have that holier than thou attitude.  He always thought he knew better, but maybe he saw my faults, and he would never trust my answers, due to me being flawed.  And then, he taught his little brother to not ask questions either.  I heard other children ask the proverbial growing-up question, “Why?”  But my two?  It was very rare.

I have often written that if we really love Jesus, and we are going to spend eternity with Him, would you not wish to learn as much about Him now?  We can start by asking and seeking.  The knocking comes as that relationship gets stronger.  That is, using Rev. Staton’s definitions of the terms.

Lord, guide me. Help us keep the fire going.  Help us to be bold in asking questions.  Help us to understand that at times, and maybe most of the time, we lack understanding.  Forgive us Lord, when our prayers indicate our lack of understanding, and guide us back to You.  In Your name I pray.  Amen.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.