A.S.K.

Ask and it shall be given unto you, seek, and ye shall find, knock, and it shall be opened unto you. - I kind of thought that the Lord was just giving us several different synonyms here to get his point across, but i think that these three examples are chosen specifically to outline the different ways that we can pray and receive from the Lord. Sometimes we ask and the Lord gives us what we ask for. We pray to find our wallet, and we find it. We pray for rain and it rains. We pray that we will do well on a test and we do well on the test. Sometimes we seek for an answer. We pray and we don’t get anything definitive from the Lord. We weigh our options and we proceed somewhat in the dark, trusting that if our choice was really harmful, god would step in and avert catastrophe. It’s interesting to note that after we ask, it is given unto us through no effort on our own. But when we seek, we find. We exercise our wisdom and our faith and our power and we find what we seek. The third kind can be the hardest. Sometimes we want an answer or a miracle. We want God to open up the windows of heaven and pour us out a blessing. We knock and we knock and we knock ourselves bloody as we pit our will against the realities of life. We desire a good thing and we exercise faith and we pray with all of our whole souls for our righteous desire. We knock and we knock and we knock. But we are not given what we ask for. We do not find what we seek. Instead, our minds and our hearts are opened to the wisdom of God. It is a hard thing that the Lord requires of us, but not harder than the thing that he required of himself. Sometimes God does not bend the universe to satisfy our wants and desires. But sometimes he unfolds the universe to our understanding. He opens up about why we suffer and gives us a vision of the far greater weight of glory if we will but endure our sufferings and afflictions for a moment. He opens up to us how all things will work together for our good and His glory. Sometimes we ask the Lord and he gives us what we ask for. Sometimes we seek and then we find. And sometimes we knock and the Lord opens up to us and the mysteries of heaven are revealed.