Knocking

After a (too) long hiatus, let's return to the subject of prayer.

In Matthew 7:7, Jesus tells us to ask (and keep on asking), to seek (and keep on seeking) and to knock -- and keep on knocking. The use of 3 different verbs here is intriguing. It tells us something about the nature of prayer.

Asking is the most passive part of prayer. It is conversational: 'Father, I need..." This is the most common type of praying. It requires the least investment of time and effort. As noted before, we are conditioned to think that we should only have to ask for something once. We are actually annoyed if we have to ask again. Just think of how you feel if you get a new cashier at your favorite fast food restaurant and he/she has trouble getting your order right.

Seems to me that, if we ask God repeatedly for something and don't get it, that ought to a clue that there is something missing in our prayers. By definition, it can't be that there is something missing in God, although that's the conclusion too many people come to when the Lord doesn't respond immediately. Maybe it should tell us that it's time to move on to the next level and seek whatever's missing.

When we seek, we can sometimes come up against a barrier. A closed door. Then it's time to start knocking. If we keep on banging on the door, Jesus says it WILL be opened for us.


There are at least 3 kinds of barriers.

First, there is the barrier of other people. People outside the church may put up opposition to our receiving what we need from God. More on that later. The fact is, this type of barrier seems to be most common with people IN the church.

The church is supposed to be a community of people who support and encourage one another. A community of individuals, each equipped by the Holy Spirit with gifts which, exercised in concert, make the church a complete, fully functional, effective body -- the Body of Christ. But for various reasons, too many people don't know what their gifts are or don't exercise them. They have something from God that they don't share with the rest of us. This cripples the whole body.

If we are up against this barrier and knocking, the first thing we need to do is ask the Lord to enlighten. Ask Him to show them their gifts and their place in the scheme of the Body We also need to ask Him to motivate them. The greatest blessings of my life have not come from sitting by and passively receiving things from God, but through the privilege of exercising my gifts and serving the Lord and His church. Using our gifts isn't just work. It isn't a distraction from personal things that are more important. It is fulfillment. It is finding what we were born for and doing it.

Then we need to seek this enlightenment and motivation. We do this, not in prayer per se, but by becoming involved with our brothers and sisters. By helping them discover their gifts and encouraging them to use them. Our actions can be prayers too.


There's more to say, but I'll let you chew on this for a bit and save it for next time. As always, your comments are more than appreciated.