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Time after Pentecost · Green · Wednesday, October 7 · Year A What’s this?
Home/What Jesus taught/Keep asking

Ask, seek, knock

Keep asking

Asking boldly, again and again, isn’t weakness. Jesus invites it.

By Digital Lutheran Church · Updated · 4 min read

Key points

  • What it means: Jesus compares God to a parent: if your child asks for bread, you don’t hand them a stone.
  • Try this: Ask for help with one thing you have been carrying alone.
  • The good news: God isn’t tired of your asking. He is a parent who loves to give good gifts.
In this article
  1. What he said
  2. What it means
  3. At work
  4. With people
  5. The hard part
  6. Try this
  7. The good news

What he said

“Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you.”

Matthew 7:7

Find it: Matthew 7:7–11

Read Matthew 7:7–11

7 “Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you. 8 For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or who is there among you, who, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, who will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

World English Bible, public domain. The whole chapter on Free Scripture → · Read in the NRSVue, the ELCA’s standard translation →

What it means

Jesus compares God to a parent: if your child asks for bread, you don’t hand them a stone. How much more will God give good things to those who ask?

Ask, seek, knock: three verbs that keep going. Faith here looks like not giving up and staying curious, not having all the answers.

At work

  • Ask the question everyone is thinking. Ask for help early. Ask for what you need.
  • Curiosity is a discipline: keep seeking, keep knocking.

With people

  • Asking for help is not a burden on people who love you. It is how they get to love you.

The hard part

Not every prayer is answered the way we hope, and that can hurt. Jesus promises good gifts, not exactly what we ask for.

Try this

Ask for help with one thing you have been carrying alone.

Go deeper

The good news

God isn’t tired of your asking. He is a parent who loves to give good gifts.

Nobody lives this perfectly. How to read it