Ask, Seek and Find
by Linden Wolfe
Truly, God is the great provider. How many of us are lacking of what we need (not what we want – our society confuses the two). James addresses this issue: James 1:17: "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows". I praise God for His abundant generosity! I certainly have more than I need.
But it seems that so often we want more than He has already provided – relationships, jobs, houses, money, cars, houses, good health and the list could go on interminably. You know – stuff for us. So we ask and beg and plead as we use the "ask, seek and knock" verse as the biblical justification (rationalization) for our requests. How many times have we lifted this passage (Matthew 7:7, Luke 11:9) out of its context and placed it on our man-created alter of self-gratification, consumption and lust? Worldly self-indulgence is epidemic and the virus is alive and well in the church. We have taken the sovereign generosity and provision of God and turned it into a self-absorbed license to demand what we desire.
But we often do not get what we want. And in that process we become increasingly disappointed and distanced from God. We forget that He is wiser that we are, does what He pleases and operates solely on the basis of His own glory. Could it be that the gifts that we ask for are not good, (in God’s eyes) much less perfect? Could it be our selfishness keeps us from truly receiving that which we most need and what ultimately glorifies Him? Again James comments succinctly in 4:3, "When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures".
Here is the other and just as concerning scenario. We actually do get what we ask for (the wrong things with the wrong motives) and we call them blessings. But are they? So much of what we want can be barriers more than blessings. They actually become distractions and hindrances in seeking what we need most– Him. In our focus on them we begin to live in the tangible instead of the spiritual. But rarely do we recognize the distance these "gifts’ have created between us and the Giver. We go happily on because our real problem is ignored – we actually do worship the gift more than the Giver. We are seeking His hand and not His face.
You see, the broader context of "ask, seek and find" is authentic spiritual vitality through true communion with Him. The idea is that we really need is to ask for and seek after is Him and we really need to knock on the door that will open to real fellowship with a holy God. We’ve got it all wrong. He is the ultimate gift and the one that should be exalted over everything. As long as we ask, seek and knock for that which is temporal and worldly we overlook our greatest need. And it is freely available.
Here is the author’s paraphrase: Ask for Him and He will come to you. Seek after Him and you will find Him in all of His beauty. Knock on the door that is Jesus (John 10:7) and He will let you in to a feast of unimaginable fellowship with Himself (Revelation 3:20). It is only in this pursuit that we find real joy and satisfaction. This is one desire that the scripture says will always be fulfilled. When we seek after the ultimate good and perfect gift, Him, we will find the real Treasure. May God change the desires of our heart and thus change our asking, seeking and knocking.
Let’s embrace Romans 12:2, "Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is--his good, pleasing and perfect will". Let’s ask, seek and knock for a communion with Him that leads to His good, perfect and pleasing will for us.
