Keep on Asking

 

Allen Carter - Head of Development/ CBN Europe

There is something about being a child that intrigues me: the simplicity of childlike faith that doesn’t take time to reason or to filter what is said—and has the confidence to ask and the simplicity to believe that they will receive. Childlike faith asks from a place of vulnerability with the expectation of an answer.

I can remember living on a farm as a child, and my brother and I coming up with an idea to ask our parents for a horse. It had always been our dream, so we came up with a plan: We would ask, and if the answer was no, we would pray and ask. We even came up with a chant which, looking back, was quite annoying: “We want a horse; we want a horse!” After many weeks of asking and using the power of persuasion, Dad and Mum eventually gave in, and we became the owners of a beautiful horse.


In Matthew 7:7-8 AMP there is a familiar passage of Scripture: “Ask and keep on asking and it will be given to you; seek and keep on seeking and you will find; knock and keep on knocking and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking, it will be opened.”

There is something about asking that opens doors of opportunity—doors that probably won’t open without an initial, persistent ask. When we choose to ask, it creates a God-given moment and space for Him to demonstrate His goodness and kindness toward us.

In these verses notice how many times the phrase “keep on” is mentioned after the ask, seek, and knock. To “keep on” speaks of persevering and continuing. Whenever we ask and keep on asking, God’s Word says “it will be given to you.” And that “when you seek and keep on seeking you will find, when you knock and keep on knocking the door will be opened to you.” There isn’t any suggestion of perhaps or possibly or it might happen. There is absolute certainty that God will respond with, “It will be given, it will be opened to you.”

A – ASK
S – SEEK
K – KNOCK

Verse 11 reads: “If you then, evil (sinful by nature) as you are, know how to give good and advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give what is good and advantageous to those who keep on asking Him.”

God already knows the secret desires of our heart, and yet He wants us to communicate and ask Him. Our heavenly Father longs, and desires, to give good gifts and things; however, there are times that we are reluctant to ask because we are uncertain of the outcome, or we don’t realize that the thing we want is freely available.

I wonder how many gifts and answers to prayers are stored up in heaven simply waiting for us to ask?


John 15:7 reads: “If you remain in Me and My words remain in you [that is, if we are vitally united and My message lives in your heart], ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.”

When we have a living, vibrant relationship with Jesus and allow His Word to abide and remain within us, there is a flow that proceeds from His heart toward us. Every day is a new adventure filled with opportunities and possibilities.

Children have no problem in asking; it’s in their nature. However, as adults, we somehow lose the desire to ask. We need to learn to pray big, audacious prayers, believing that our Heavenly Father can and will answer with no strings attached.

James 1:17 reads: Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above; it comes down from the Father of lights [the Creator and Sustainer of the heavens], in whom there is no variation [no rising or setting] or shadow cast by His turning [for He is perfect and never changes].

God is a good God, and an incredible Father—and everything good within our lives comes from Him. He is the source, and we cannot take any credit. His goodness and free-flowing, extravagant grace are freely available every day.

Can I encourage you to be childlike and to continue asking your heavenly Father, believing that you will receive? You won’t be disappointed!