Ask, Seek, Knock--ASK

When the disciples asked Jesus to teach them to pray He provided them with a model prayer that is sometimes known as the Lord's Prayer. It's a model prayer in that it reveals the components of Christian prayer in a few words. Those components include the following:

• Adoration
• Confession.
• Thanksgiving
• Supplication

Did you notice that this outline forms an acronym? It is ACTS, and that is the name of one of the most powerful books in the New Testament.

There's another acronym that relates to prayer as well:

• Ask
• Seek
• Knock

Notice the word "ask" that is formed by the initial letters of each of the words. This takes us to a prayer promise that Jesus gave us:  "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened" (Luke 11:9-10).

Have you been asking, seeking, and knocking? As you do so, you will learn that God will make a way for you even when it seems as if there is no way. He is the Way-maker in our lives.

Tennyson wrote, "More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of." I wholeheartedly agree with him. This is especially true when we learn to pray according to the will of God, which is fully revealed in His Word. The Bible says, "And this is the confidence that we have in him, that, if we ask any thing according to his will, he heareth us: And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him" (1 John 5:14-15).

One of our Bridge-Logos authors, Pastor Jack Hayford, writes, "The only point of confusion lies in a misunderstanding of the verb 'ask.' Its tense in Greek conveys the idea of continual asking. But that is not a command to ask repeatedly for the same thing in order to force God into action. The continuality which Jesus wants is in ceaseless petitioning. In other words, you need never hesitate to ask for something just because you asked for something else earlier. Any hint that heaven "gets too busy" with earlier requests to have either time or supply for the next is pure folly.

"Here's the message of the parable: 1. You have a friend in the Heavenly Father. He's on your side, and available anytime, in every circumstance. 2. Boldness is your privilege. Your assignment is to ask; His commitment is to give--as much as you need.

"This is the beginning: 'Seeking' and 'knocking' are further steps as one walks the pathway of prayer. But we need to get started, and this is probably the greatest need facing us today: too many hesitate to pray. they hesitate through a sense of unworthiness, a feeling of distance from deity, a wondering about God's will in the matter, a concern over 'if it's okay,' and uncertainty of how much to ask for, a fear that God won't hear.

"Jesus strikes the death blow to such hesitancy: ask. Ask with unabashed forwardness; ask with shameless boldness! He commands. And when you do, He clearly teaches, "Your friend, My Father, will rise to the occasion and see that everything you need is provided." (Taken from Prayer Is Invading the Impossible by Jack Hayford. Published by Bridge-Logos Foundation in Alachua, Florida.)