Tuesday, 31 January 2023

Matthew 7:7-8 We Knock, Seek and Ask

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Matthew 7:7-8 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 the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it shall be opened.

Every week, we read this in our Congregational Declaration ... "We seek, knock and ask, believing He will guide us into greater levels of trust and intimacy, according to His call." These subject verses today are the source of that thought. But, let's put this in the face of the hyper-grace movement. They believe (in error) that grace is sufficient.

However; here we are told by Yeshua to ask, seek, and knock which is more than simply wait on grace. When we do, He promises to allow us to receive (as we ask), open to us (as we knock), and find (as we seek). Let me offer another word on grace to finish. To do this, let's pick up where we left off with this last time. Grace is divine inspiration to both will and to do.

Philippians 2:13 For the One working in you is God - both to will and to work for His good pleasure.

To "will" is the desire to do His will. But that is only the front side of the two sided "grace coin." The other side is the ability to do His will. For God to give us desire without the ability would lead us into a life of frustration. Grace is the "whole package," both the desire and the ability to do His will. Doing the will of God is not a departure from grace, it is grace. We seek, knock and ask, then he does the rest in us, to us and through us.