Matthew 7-- "Asking"

“Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:” (v. 7)

Evangelist John R. Rice says that “Prayer is asking” and he even wrote a book to that effect. If this be true, the Lord is telling us that He will answer our prayers, without a doubt. He said in another place, “And whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.” (Jn. 14:13). Our problem is that we put a time table on the Lord, and become discouraged, and eventually give up on prayer. Although James outlines some thoughts in asking properly, Christ still said that if we ask, we will receive. He wants to answer our prayers! Remember, Jesus said that we would receive that which we ask for, but He did not say when we would receive it! There is a timetable in effect, God’s timing, and it is always the best, whether we think so or not.

If you will read Daniel 10:12,13, you will see that even Daniels’ prayers were hindered for 21 days while unseen forces battled in the firmament above. In Dan. 9:23, we see perhaps, an unspecified time passing before the angel came to answer Daniel’s prayer. Folks, let’s be diligent in our part, (prayer) and wait on the Lord and let Him do His part, in His time. One man has said “Timing is everything” and in many cases, it is. There is a time for the answers to come, but we always want God to hurry it up! The promise in our verse in “ask, and it shall be given…”, not “I’ll think about it” or “it might be given, if I feel like it”, but “It shall be given” us.

We occasionally hear that God sometimes answers “No” to our prayers, but I don’t see that in Scripture! The only thing close to it is concerning Paul’s “thorn in the flesh” as we say, but God had a purpose there, and had already told Paul that he would be made an example for others. It was part of his God-given destiny, you might say. If God ever answers in the negative, then this passage is a lie, as well as several others. A study on prayer would be very beneficial, and very exhilarating for us, and I must say, very appropriate at this point, not to mention informative. Every prayer promise seems to be in the affirmative, with some giving “conditions” but Jesus Himself tells us of no conditions. Now, it is appropriate, and expedient that we meet certain conditions, only to please God in our lives, but to get prayers answered, we simply need to believe Him, and His Word.