Jesus said to his disciples: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Mt 7:7). If taken in a purely secular, non-religious, or non-biblical sense, and out of context, this teaching of Jesus from his Sermon on the Mount may not seem possible. Someone might think can I really ask for anything and God will give it to me? Too many people have thought just that had their faith has weakened or left behind because they asked something of God and from their perspective, they did not receive what they asked for.
To understand this verse we need to understand a few key points. One is that God is God and we are not. That means that we do not have the full scope and sequence of God’s infinite viewpoint. We can only see from our limited and often times wounded perspective. Our God, who is Good, will only give us that which is good for us. What we are asking for may appear to be good, but may not, in fact, be truly good, and/or in our best interest beyond the moment. If someone wants to say, well, I ought to be able to decide that!
That means they have missed the first point, God is God and we are not. God not only seeks to give us what is good, he knows what will truly make us happy and fulfilled even when we don’t. God sees the very depths of the truth of our deepest desires, we often do not and often times are seeking things in the attempt to receive what we think we want, when in fact, the very seeking of the apparent good(s) we are seeking are keeping us from he very thing that will fulfill us.
Another point that I have learned from Bishop Robert Barron is that “Your life is not about you.” We are created by God for a reason and a specific purpose. Our life is about fulfilling our role in God’s theodrama. The context of this verse is best understood by reading in conjunction with when Jesus stated, “Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness” (Matthew 6:33). As we seek first his kingdom and our place and part to play our collaborative role with him, we can be assured he will answer us, we will find our place, and the door of the kingdom will be opened for us.
We are not the director in the great play of life, God is, but we do have a unique and significant part to play. That is good news! Meaning, joy, and fulfillment are experienced when we understand that God does not need us but desires us to share in his work of salvation history. This a wonderful truth we would do well to ponder. The other side of the coin for those of us who may not be seeking finite pursuits, but God’s will… this may seem a bit intimidating. We can be confident though that what God requires of us, he will give us the means and support necessary to fulfill the work he invites us to partake in. The last line of today’s gospel, expressing the Golden Rule, is no throw away line. The words express why God calls us and it echoes Jesus’ greatest commandment to love God with all our heart, soul, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves.
C.S. Lewis can also help us to understand our posture of prayer: “I pray because I can’t help myself. I pray because I’m helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn’t change God. It changes me.” When we pray with the intent to bend God’s will toward ours we will find frustration each time. We pray because we are answering God’s invitation to spend time with him. We pray not because God is dependent on us to do so, but because we are dependent on him for everything.
We are transformed by God’s love and his grace builds upon our nature when we begin our prayer with the truth that God is God and we are not and that our life is not about us. We will know God better, not as a philosophical idea, but instead as a person. In knowing God better, we grow in our love for him and want to follow his will and serve him. When we know, love, and serve God, we will change. Such change may sometimes not appear to be in our best interest. We like stability and safety, which is good. Where we want to place our safety and security though is not in the things of this world, but in God and the things of heaven.
When we approach prayer seeking not our’s but our Father’s will, we can be confident that we will grow in our relationship with him and that what we ask of God will be given to us, what we seek we will find, and when we knock, the door will be open. “The Father wants to give all who will ask, seek, and knock the blessings that will enable his will to be realized on earth as it is in heaven” (Mitch and Sri, 117). We are invited to be agents to share in the promise of this wonderful gift of participating in the emergence of a new heaven and a new earth.
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Photo: Receiving the light of Jesus during prayer before morning Mass.
Spiritual Stepping Stones 