Inquirer Receives God’s Information - 09/10/2023

Jesus, in His sermon, is speaking to the individual about their priorities. He has said they must judge themselves before judging others. He has given a warning about handling the gospel with wisdom. He now instructs the believer to set as a priority the inquiring of information from God who will provide. (Matthew 7:7-11).

Jesus gives three methods for inquiring: asking, seeking and knocking. He gives the response to each method: askers will receive, seekers will find, and knockers will have good things opened for him. With each method, the process begins with the individual. They must do something before God will do something.

It is amazing to me that God wants people to inquire. He wants to share His information, but He is waiting for individuals to take the initiative. God may be waiting to “see” how interested we are in His information.

The two examples Jesus gives show a contrast to what a human father will do and what the heavenly father will do. Sometimes the human father will do something unethical, or evil, which will hurt the child. The heavenly father will always do what is ethically correct. He will never give the son a “stone” or a “snake.”

This “Father who is in heaven,” as opposed to the human (sometimes “evil”) father, will always “give what is good to those who ask Him!” Jesus acknowledges the “evil” father “know[s] how to give good gifts to his children” but he does not always do it. By contrast, the heavenly Father will always do what is good.

What the inquirer can rely on is that God will always give “good” information, do “good” deeds, and it will always be “good” for the individual. The inquirer must ask, “Am I willing to put my trust into this statement of God?”

When Jesus inquired of His Father through prayer, He always got good information. I feel very confident Jesus did a lot of “asking, seeking and knocking.”

If this conclusion is correct, then Jesus lived what He was teaching. While this statement is made early in the ministry of Jesus, the biblical text records many examples of Jesus inquiring of God, especially on the more important matters.

To use a phrase from earlier in His sermon, Jesus said His true followers, those who are truly blessed, would have a “hunger and thirst for righteousness.” The intensity of our commitment to God will be demonstrated in how frequently and fervently we are “asking, seeking and knocking” for God’s information. For the Christian, it is “second nature” to be an inquirer because we want to have God’s information which will help us daily to be living God’s way. - cgm

Scriptural quotations from the NASB1995.