What are you pursuing? Are you pursuing a better career? Are you pursuing a lifelong companion? Are you pursuing higher education? Are you pursuing retirement? Or are you merely getting by? Are you just hanging for one more day? Have you contemplated your situation?
We pursue a wide variety of things throughout our lifetimes. We pursue all those things listed above and many more. Some of them are extremely challenging to achieve. Others seem to fall into our laps with little effort. We all end up somewhere but may not end up where we want.
Jesus tells us to ask, search, and knock. He says that when we do, we will find what we are looking for. Too often this passage is applied incorrectly. Some view it the same as getting three wishes from a genie in a bottle. That is not the case nor the intent of Jesus’ message. Perhaps the most important thing to remember is that we need to be seeking what God wants.
When we are seeking what God wants, we can ask and receive. We can search and find. We knock and the door will be opened. For when we are seeking what God wants, our will and his will are in sync. Therefore, what we are asking for, searching for, and knocking for is in accordance with God’s will. He will always grant what we ask for when we ask in his will.
Too many people will respond by saying they do not know God’s will. The simple answer is this: love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength, and love your neighbor as yourself. When we love as Jesus loved, we are in God’s will. When we ask out of love for God and neighbor, we are in God’s will. We don’t need to make it any harder than that.
I pray we all ask in God’s will that we may receive. I pray we search in God’s will that we may find. I pray each one of us will knock in God’s will that the door may be opened. Love God. Love your neighbor. Ask in love. Search in love. Knock in love. Trust that God grant what you seek.
Luke 11:9-11 “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given to you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”
Marty Pressey 