You Have To Ask

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February 9, 2003 - Matthew 7:7-11

Open It

  1. If you were going to write a letter to God with your requests, How would you write it?
  2. With what kind of energy or How much energy do you believe it is necessary to use to gain and maintain contact with God?

Explore It

  1. What did Jesus say will happen if we bring our requests to him? (7:7)
  2. What happens when we seek in Christ's name? (7:7)
  3. According to Jesus, what is the result for those who "knock" on God's door? (7:7)
  4. How do loving parents respond to a child's request for bread? (7:9)
  5. How do loving parents respond to a child's request for fish? (7:10)
  6. What is true about the character of even the best human parent? (7:11)
  7. How can we be encouraged by the sight of parents doing good things for their children? (7:11)
  8. What is the likelihood of God giving his children what they need? (7:11)

Get It

  1. What do you tend to ask for?
  2. For what are you reluctant to ask for?
  3. How do you react when someone comes to you with a legitimate need?
  4. What motivates parents or grand-parents to provide for the needs of the family?
  5. If earthly parents generally attempt to care for their children, what can you conclude about God?

Apply It

  1. What request will you bring to God every day this week?
  2. How will you ask or seek or knock so that what you understand to be a need may be fulfilled?

NOTES

Jesus tells us to persist in pursuing God. People often give up after a few halfhearted efforts and conclude that God cannot be found. But knowing God takes faith, focus, and follow-through, and Jesus assures us that we will be rewarded. Don't give up in your efforts to seek God. Continue to ask him for more knowledge, patience, wisdom, love, and understanding. He will give them to you.

The child in Jesus' example asked his father for bread and fish-good and necessary items. If the child had asked for a poisonous snake, would the wise father have granted his request? Sometimes God knows we are praying for "snakes" and does not give us what we ask for, even though we persist in our prayers. As we learn to know God better as a loving Father, we learn to ask for what is good for us, and then he grants it.

Christ is showing us the heart of God the Father. God is not selfish, begrudging, or stingy, and we don't have to beg or grovel as we come with our requests. He is a loving Father who understands, cares, and comforts. If humans can be kind, imagine how kind God, the Creator of kindness, can be.

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