Posts Tagged: when prayers aren't answered right away

“Asking, Seeking, Knocking”

On July 6, 2023 by Dteb With 0 Comments - down to earth believer

“Matt. 7:7 ¶ “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Matt. 7:8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Matt. 7:9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone?

Matt. 7:10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent?

Matt. 7:11 If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!” (English Standard Version)

I asked for something, and God didn’t come through right away. Man, am I ever ticked off with the Almighty! I thought that God was faster than a speeding bullet. (Wait! That’s superman, isn’t it?)

Sometimes, God seems awfully slow, doesn’t he? Sometimes, we pray and we pray and we pray, and . . . nothing.

According to Matthew’s Gospel, prayer is not a flash-in-the-pan activity. The verbs for asking, seeking, and knocking are not only action words. They are all in the present tense in Greek. This suggests ongoing, repetitive action. We need to keep on asking, seeking, and knocking.

Whydo we need to keep on asking, seeking, and knocking? Is God hard of hearing or just plain grudging about giving us what we want (or think we want)? Or is it that God wants us to refine the things we ask of him? Perhaps we need to keep on keeping on because we don’t know what to ask for until we’ve asked for a long time. Berries must ripen and that takes time. Prayers must also ripen.

I can raise a lot more questions about prayer than I can answer. I can also think and write and ask questions about prayer a lot more than I actually pray. But I think that, for me at least the bottom line is expressed in an old saying: “What we gain too easily, we esteem too lightly.” Perhaps God’s delays are because God wants us to esteem prayer more. Perhaps God also wants us to esteem the One to whom we pray more.

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