Matthew 7:7-12 NASB
⁷Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
⁹Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone? ¹⁰Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?
¹¹If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him! ¹²In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Devotional
Whoever asks God for good, receives it.
Recently it was about what God expects from you.
Now Jesus continues with what you may expect from God.
We humans fail to obey God’s commandments in our own strength.
That is why we must ask Him for strength.
In two times the same series of three, this is emphasized: praying, seeking and knocking (Matthew 7:7,8).
This may have been an existing expression among beggars.
If you keep asking, searching and knocking, you will always get something.
As children of the heavenly Father, you can be absolutely sure that He gives, that He allows you to find, and that He will not leave you standing in front of a closed door.
To ensure us that prayer will be answered, Jesus uses the image of a father who does not give his son stones for bread (Matthew 7:9).
At that time, the flat, round loaves were very similar to certain stones.
Nor does a father give serpents for a fish (Matthew 7:10).
With ‘fish’ you can think of an eel, which looks a lot like a snake.
A loving earthly father will neither cheat nor threaten his son.
If an earthly father doesn’t, then certainly not our heavenly Father!
God always gives good (Matthew 7:11).
This means the salvation of his Kingdom (cf. Matthew 6:33, where Jesus also speaks of seeking).
Everything you need to enter and live in His Kingdom, God will give.
Luke tells the same parable (Luke 11:9-13. In Luke an egg and a scorpion instead of a loaf of bread and a stone. A coiled scorpion looks like an egg. So here also threat).
But he speaks instead of good, of the Holy Spirit, which the Father will surely give on prayer.
The Holy Spirit empowers us to fulfill God’s commandments in love (cf. for the fulfillment of the law and the prophets Matthew 5:17. According to Romans 13:8-10, the fulfillment of the law is love).
We say: What you do not want done to you, do not do to another.’
Jesus omits the word ‘not’ twice in Matthew 7:12.
He asks for our unlimited love for the other, and that is more than doing him or her no harm.
Question: What can you ask God of good things from the Lord’s Prayer, Matthew 6:9-13?
Prayer suggestions
- Ask God to give you the Holy Spirit.
- Ask God to help you live uprightly.
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