“For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and In him who knocks, the door will be opened” (Luke 11:10).
Jesus continues His teaching on prayer by saying, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Luke 11:9). Here is one of our Lord’s most encouraging statements inviting His people to pray. Consider the riches we have lost from our Father’s house because we have simply failed to ask for them.
Often when we pray, our prayers are so nebulous that we can never see any kind of answer. “Dear God, bless everybody in the world. Amen.” “Dear God, make everything turn out all right. Amen.” Those kinds of amorphous prayers hardly encourage us to come back for more. It is when we pray specifically and see concrete answers that we are moved to ask for more of God’s blessings.
A word of caution about verse 10: “Everyone who asks receives.” We have to qualify this statement with all the other statements on prayer in the Bible. Limited to believers, we are to pray according to God’s Word, not asking for things the Bible indicates are improper.
Jesus goes on to encourage prayer with a threefold analogy in verses 11 and 12: “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion?” Well, obviously no father would be so cruel as to put poison into the hands of his child. Then Jesus says, “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 the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (v. 13). We are evil, says Jesus, yet we know how to give gifts. How much more does God know how to give to His children.
Have you ever asked God for a greater measure of the Holy Spirit? We have asked Him for fish and eggs, but we are invited to ask for the Spirit, the gift of God Himself.
God’s ultimate gift to us is Himself. He gave us Jesus, and Jesus gives us the Father. Now Jesus and the Father invite us to ask for the Holy Spirit also, whom they send to guide, guard, and bless the church. All believers receive the Spirit, but we can receive fresh visits from God. Ask God to give you a greater fellowship with Him today
