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Why God Gives, Shows, and Opens When We Ask, Seek, and Knock
Why God Gives, Shows, and Opens When We Ask, Seek, and Knock
David W Palmer
(Matthew 7:12 DKJV) “Therefore, in everything, whatever you want others to do to you, you do the same to them; for this is the objective of the law and the prophets.”
Today, Jesus is teaching another exciting training session for his devoted trainees. In it, he leads us to look at one of the reasons God responds so readily to us when we ask, seek, and knock. But before we investigate today’s verse, to ensure we understand it’s context, let’s go back and reread the one before it; it prompts Jesus to start verse 12 with, “therefore.”
(Matthew 7:11–12 DKJV) “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? Therefore …”
Putting “therefore” at the start of verse 12, implies that what he is about to say after it is a direct outcome of verse 11 (and previous verses). In this situation, the outcome could be paraphrased as: “God gives when you ask him for something, therefore live by the Golden Rule.” Initially, it doesn’t seem to make sense. I would be expecting him to say: “Therefore, go ahead and ask; God will give you what you ask for.” To me, logically this is what would come after a “therefore” that follows such an amazing promise of generosity.
However, we see from verse 12 that that is not what Jesus concluded out of verse 11. Astoundingly, he concluded that we should do unto others, as we would have them do unto us. This is an amazing progression of logic, grammar, and sentence construction. From it, we can only conclude the following:
God gives, shows, and opens when we ask, seek, and knock, because he is applying the golden rule to himself: “In everything, whatever he wants others to do to him, he does the same to them.” In effect, Jesus is saying, “God gives to you when you ask him, therefore be like him and do that for others.”
God knows that the law of sowing and reaping is absolute, eternal, and unbreakable. So he uses it purposefully to reap what he wants in his future. In truth, it is at the heart of much of Jesus’s classroom coaching, and he said it was the “objective of the Law and the Prophets.” Jesus uses the way God responds to our asking, seeking, and knocking, as an illustration of God sowing wisely for the future he wants.
God gives when we ask, because he wants us to give to him when he asks. For example, he asks us for his tithe and our love. He doesn’t demand them; instead he sows for them by giving us what we ask. God seeks worshipers, and he wants to find them. He sows for this by supplying and guiding us into finding what we seek. He opens when we knock, because he wants us to open when he knocks at the door of our hearts (Rev. 3:20). In truth, he wants to come in and dine with us. (We can only assume this means that he wants us to feast on his living word as he opens it to us and as we feed it back to him in prayer and grateful praise.) God fully understands the undeniable law of sowing and reaping; he created it, and he operates it lovingly for good.
Later in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus confirmed that this interaction is love when he said that the whole law and the prophets hang on two commandments—love God and neighbors:
(Matthew 22:37–40 NKJV) Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ {38} This is the first and great commandment. {39} And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ {40} On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Putting this passage together with the one we are looking at in Matthew 7—where Jesus said that the Golden Rule is the “objective of the Law and Prophets”—we see that God instituted the “Law and the Prophets” to produce love. It’s the kind of love that’s best described as, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” In God’s mind, this is love; and it is a clear-cut application of the law of sowing and reaping.
Jesus’s next statement is even more enlightening. We will look at it tomorrow. Meanwhile, can I encourage you to literally do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Despite this being the objective of the law and the prophets, people under the Old Testament struggled to obey it; and even when they did, they seemed to have had little understanding of its intended outcome, love.
Thankfully, under the New Testament, we who are born again, filled with the Holy Spirit, led by the Spirit, and are fully devoted worshippers of God, have his help to love the way Jesus wants:
(Romans 5:5 NKJV) “… the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
(Galatians 5:22 NKJV) “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, …”
God’s Holy Spirit enables us to love with God’s love. This is grace; and it means that if we use our faith to receive that grace, we can love by initiative like God does. This is very exciting because it means that God will not only coach us, but also empower us to use the law of sowing and reaping wisely like he does. We can use it to reap a wonderful and permanent future—full of love, joy, peace, encouragement, forgiveness, freedom from judgment, and abundance. In truth, anything that we sow while we have the opportunity will come back to us multiplied in our future.
Today, I encourage you to think about what you would love to have in your immediate and eternal future. Then find someone for whom you can do or supply it now. God will help you; he thinks it’s a brilliant idea. So if someone asks (and if it’s within God’s will), give it to them; if they seek, show them; if they knock, open to them … especially if the “them” is God.
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By DAVID W. PALMERWhy God Gives, Shows, and Opens When We Ask, Seek, and Knock
David W Palmer
(Matthew 7:12 DKJV) “Therefore, in everything, whatever you want others to do to you, you do the same to them; for this is the objective of the law and the prophets.”
Today, Jesus is teaching another exciting training session for his devoted trainees. In it, he leads us to look at one of the reasons God responds so readily to us when we ask, seek, and knock. But before we investigate today’s verse, to ensure we understand it’s context, let’s go back and reread the one before it; it prompts Jesus to start verse 12 with, “therefore.”
(Matthew 7:11–12 DKJV) “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? Therefore …”
Putting “therefore” at the start of verse 12, implies that what he is about to say after it is a direct outcome of verse 11 (and previous verses). In this situation, the outcome could be paraphrased as: “God gives when you ask him for something, therefore live by the Golden Rule.” Initially, it doesn’t seem to make sense. I would be expecting him to say: “Therefore, go ahead and ask; God will give you what you ask for.” To me, logically this is what would come after a “therefore” that follows such an amazing promise of generosity.
However, we see from verse 12 that that is not what Jesus concluded out of verse 11. Astoundingly, he concluded that we should do unto others, as we would have them do unto us. This is an amazing progression of logic, grammar, and sentence construction. From it, we can only conclude the following:
God gives, shows, and opens when we ask, seek, and knock, because he is applying the golden rule to himself: “In everything, whatever he wants others to do to him, he does the same to them.” In effect, Jesus is saying, “God gives to you when you ask him, therefore be like him and do that for others.”
God knows that the law of sowing and reaping is absolute, eternal, and unbreakable. So he uses it purposefully to reap what he wants in his future. In truth, it is at the heart of much of Jesus’s classroom coaching, and he said it was the “objective of the Law and the Prophets.” Jesus uses the way God responds to our asking, seeking, and knocking, as an illustration of God sowing wisely for the future he wants.
God gives when we ask, because he wants us to give to him when he asks. For example, he asks us for his tithe and our love. He doesn’t demand them; instead he sows for them by giving us what we ask. God seeks worshipers, and he wants to find them. He sows for this by supplying and guiding us into finding what we seek. He opens when we knock, because he wants us to open when he knocks at the door of our hearts (Rev. 3:20). In truth, he wants to come in and dine with us. (We can only assume this means that he wants us to feast on his living word as he opens it to us and as we feed it back to him in prayer and grateful praise.) God fully understands the undeniable law of sowing and reaping; he created it, and he operates it lovingly for good.
Later in Matthew’s gospel, Jesus confirmed that this interaction is love when he said that the whole law and the prophets hang on two commandments—love God and neighbors:
(Matthew 22:37–40 NKJV) Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ {38} This is the first and great commandment. {39} And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ {40} On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.”
Putting this passage together with the one we are looking at in Matthew 7—where Jesus said that the Golden Rule is the “objective of the Law and Prophets”—we see that God instituted the “Law and the Prophets” to produce love. It’s the kind of love that’s best described as, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” In God’s mind, this is love; and it is a clear-cut application of the law of sowing and reaping.
Jesus’s next statement is even more enlightening. We will look at it tomorrow. Meanwhile, can I encourage you to literally do unto others as you would have them do unto you. Despite this being the objective of the law and the prophets, people under the Old Testament struggled to obey it; and even when they did, they seemed to have had little understanding of its intended outcome, love.
Thankfully, under the New Testament, we who are born again, filled with the Holy Spirit, led by the Spirit, and are fully devoted worshippers of God, have his help to love the way Jesus wants:
(Romans 5:5 NKJV) “… the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.”
(Galatians 5:22 NKJV) “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, …”
God’s Holy Spirit enables us to love with God’s love. This is grace; and it means that if we use our faith to receive that grace, we can love by initiative like God does. This is very exciting because it means that God will not only coach us, but also empower us to use the law of sowing and reaping wisely like he does. We can use it to reap a wonderful and permanent future—full of love, joy, peace, encouragement, forgiveness, freedom from judgment, and abundance. In truth, anything that we sow while we have the opportunity will come back to us multiplied in our future.
Today, I encourage you to think about what you would love to have in your immediate and eternal future. Then find someone for whom you can do or supply it now. God will help you; he thinks it’s a brilliant idea. So if someone asks (and if it’s within God’s will), give it to them; if they seek, show them; if they knock, open to them … especially if the “them” is God.