Just Ask!

Surprise, surprise to discover that the following words are not a prayer formula nor some grandiose promise about how God answers prayer: Ask and it shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it shall be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8 New American Standard) What they are is a statement about the nature of our relationship with God. Here's what I mean. The beginning of the Sermon on the Mount by Jesus, which contains the words above, is a listing of what we have come to call, "The Beatitudes." For those who are new to the Bible, the Beatitudes are that set of verses in Matthew 5 that being with the words "Blessed are..." as in "Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven" and so on. The Beatitudes are followed up in verse 17 of Matthew 5 with an interesting comment by Jesus: Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to abolish but to fulfill." The comment is interesting, but it is also odd, unless you understand why he likely said it at that moment. He said it, because what he had just taught people in the Beatitudes might make them think that he was speaking against the Law. The Beatitudes say that if you are poor in spirit, yours is the kingdom of heaven; if you are gentle, you will inherit the earth; if you are pure in heart you will see God; if you are a peacemaker you will be called sons of God. Each of these comments flies in the face of what the Pharisees and Sadducees and frankly all of Israel, had been teaching about how one will see God etc. It was following the Law, they had been taught, that would eventually allow one to see God. Jesus' teaching, sounded like he was going off in a different direction. He wasn't, but he needed to correct their erroneous view of the Law. To explain further his view of the Law, Jesus gives several examples of faulty thinking, each beginning with words like, "You have heard it said....but I say to you." In each case he tells the people about some application of the Law they had been taught, and shows them that actually God's interpretation of the Law was much stricter than the interpretation of the Scribes and Pharisees. In fact he tells the people: For I say to you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven. (Mt. 5:20) To make it worse he finally tells them in verse 48: Therefore you are to be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect. Houston, we have a problem: ain't none of us going to make it. None of us are perfect, and none of us even close. Now what? The now what is answered as Jesus continues his Sermon on the Mount thoughts, leading people eventually to this statement in Matthew 7:7-8: Ask and shall be given to you; seek and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds and to him who knocks it shall be opened. What is he saying? Here's what it seems to me: "Friends, I know you have been following the Law. I'm in favor of that. But know that following the Law in some ritualistic manner isn't going to get it done. Here's what you need to do to have a forgiven relationship with me: Just ask! Just seek! Just knock on the door! I'll open it!" Just ask! What a great comment by the Lord. Friend, he is saying, just ask me, I'll forgive you. Friend, if you want to get your life in order, just seek me, I'll answer. If you want to have fellowship with me, just knock on my door, I'll open it! Relax! I'm for you! While this section does relate to prayer in a secondary sense, it is not a formula or some promise about prayer. It is rather the Lord's freeing instructions for how to have a healthy relationship with him, a relationship not based on ritualistically following a set of rules we ultimately can't keep well enough to have it count for much in the first place anyway. Just ask! he says! Just ask! I'll be there, I'll forgive, I'll walk with you. Lighten up. Relax. Get off the rules bandwagon. Talk to me. I'm here. Knock on my door, I'm in! Wow, what a relief. The Lord is saying, Come on over. Lets be friends. Just ask me and it'll happen. Yes there are things we'll need to clean up along the way as God works in our lives. That's called repentance. Its part of the deal. But because we can never clean things up well enough to be perfect, Jesus is saying we can't and shouldn't base our relationship with him on whether or not we have met the requirements of the Law. We haven't and we never will. Solution? JUST ASK! Critics and fundamentalists will say that such an approach leaves out our need for repentance and Lordship and all that. I get that. I understand that. My point today is not to explain every nuance of all those things, as important as they are. My point today is to set people free who have been on the one hand bound by rules that they can never follow well enough, and on the other hand, to set people free from having their faith damaged because their prayer formula isn't working for them. "Ask and it shall be given to you..." is a statement about having a relationship with the Lord. Enjoy that and don't let the naysayers rob you of that freedom and openness. Look to the sky today and give the Lord a "Good morning." He's waiting to talk. He said so, and the "come on in" sign is on the door.