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Praying With Confidence

Apr 15, 2013
We sometimes become impatient in our prayer life. We might get angry or simply throw up our hands and decide God is not listening to us when He doesn’t answer our prayers immediately or in the exact way we hoped. The truth is that God delights in answering our prayers and has provided plenty of promises that should motivate us to talk with Him.
Read today’s passage one more time. If we understand what Jesus was saying in Matthew 7, we will be able to pray with greater confidence.
To ask is the easy part. We request aid in our jobs or protection of our children. We also ask to be drawn closer to God.
Then, to seek is the next step—the action stage of asking. Oftentimes we need to do something before God will bring about an answer to our prayers. For instance, if we pray, “God, please help me understand Scripture,” we must proceed to open the Bible and start reading.
Finally, to knock demonstrates that we’re coming to the Lord with a sense of dependence upon Him. We recognize that we cannot manipulate an answer to our petitions but instead must rely upon His power. What’s more, our ability to “knock” is unique—our God is personal and intensely interested in us.
Jesus uses the words ask, seek, and knock in the present active imperative tense. That means “ask and keep on asking; seek and keep on seeking; knock and keep on knocking.” In the Scriptures, prayer is compared to incense, which implies an unbroken stream that flows from us to heaven. Are you providing a continuous fragrance to the Lord with your prayers?
God bless you!

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