Uni-verse 161-10,000 ASK

Uni-verse 161/10,000 For better through verse Mathew 7 v 7
Mat 7:7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:

The word " ask" is itself an acroustic for ask, seek and knock. It is also an acroustic for attitudes, skill and knowledge. Indeed, an admixture of attitudes, skill and knowledge is involved in asking,seeking and knocking. There are a few conditions for our " asking,seeking and knocking " to be fruitful or effective: one, we must ask in Jesus's name, two, we must ask believing that we have received or will receive it and hence, we must be thankful to the Lord and we must not entertain doubts whether God is able to answer our request. Three, we must ask according to God's pleasing will. We must express our confidence that God will answer our prayers. We must ask boldly and not diffidently or hesitantly as a child of God who has His favour. We must ask on the basis of a specific promise in the Word of God that has been spoken into our lives. God is specially pleased when we ask for increased wisdom. Recently, the Lord told me that you were not very wise or intelligent when you were young but you asked for wisdom and I sharpened your intellect. When He gives us wisdom, He also gives us as a double portion, riches and honour that we should not ask the Lord for. He knows and measures our thoughts, attitudes, desires and feelings and the extent of our needs and abilities. He fills the gap in His grace, compassion and wisdom.
Seeking is believing. We must seek diligently and never give up on our quest. We must seek with all our heart. We must seek to see His face as a lover seeks to see his beloved's face. We must seek His kingdom, His Word, His righteousness. We must seek to advance His kingdom and His righteousness in our circle of influence and our circle of control. We must have God in our thoughts by consciously and continually thinking on the lines of His Word.
Knocking is again a spiritual discipline. We must knock persistently like the person in Jesus's parable who kept knocking till the neighbour got up in the middle of the night and gave him the bowl of sugar he was asking for. We must knock on the door of Heaven for our earthly needs. We must also knock on the door of opportunity to share the gospel, to glorify the Lord and opportunities to grow. We must knock on the door of opportunity concerning our vocation or our profession and pray that the Lord will allow only the right door to open and to close the wrong doors. We are asked only to knock and not to prise open doors using our own human resourcefulness and craft. Indeed, the door that He opens no man can close and the door that He closes, no man can open. The qualities of faith, persistence, diligence, patience, love, hope, contentment, passion, humility and wisdom are involved in the discipline of asking, seeking and knocking. When over the past three decades or more, I found the Lord answering prayers in a very specific and marvellous way as He alone can, doors opening and also discovered simple answers to life's complex questions, my faith grew in leaps and bounds. ASK is the secret of a believer's success, prosperity, wisdom and favour. The focus is on the spiritual while the material blessings are only an incidental by-product.

Prateep V Philip