Keep On Asking

Keep On Asking

Keep on asking, and you will be given what you ask for. Keep on looking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. –Luke 11:9

Ever since Matt spent a week at my mother’s house this summer, he has been asking me to buy a bucket of chocolate chip cookie dough at Sam’s Club—not to make cookies with, but to eat by the spoonful! Because I know that it wouldn’t be good for either one of us to have a bucket of yummy cookie dough easily available in the freezer, I have said no over and over . . . until last week. His repeated requests wore me down and I did it. (Come to think of it, I’ll get a spoonful right now.)

But I think God is a better parent than I am. He doesn’t give in by giving me everything I ask for when he knows it is not best for me. When we read Jesus’ encouragement to keep on asking, we are tempted to think that the secret formula for getting what we want from God is to wear him down by repeating our request. Or sometimes we think the secret to getting what we want from God is to get as many people as possible to ask God for it. Is that what’s really behind many massive prayer requests we e-mail across the country? We think, Surely if enough people are praying, God will grant our request. Do sheer numbers or repetition really move the heart and hand of God?

I know as a parent I don’t want Matt to take the approach of trying to wear me down by repeating his request or pounding on my door. I want to have a conversation. I want to hear his heart on the matter, and I want him to hear mine. And I have to believe that is how it is with our heavenly Parent. He loves us, and he cares about our needs. And while he values and invites our persistence in prayer, I think he would say to us, “Don’t just pound on my door repeating your same request, refusing to listen or reason with me. Come in and talk to me. Share your heart with me and let me share mine with you.” Prayer is about a conversation with God, not wearing him down to get what we want. Asking, seeking, and knocking have little to do with getting what we want from God but everything to do with getting God. And as we pursue God, he gives himself to us in fuller and newer ways.

My ever-patient Parent, you are more than anything I could ask for, you are the destination I am desperately seeking, and you are the door I’m knocking on that opens up the treasures of God. What more could I want or need?

DIGGING DEEPER