7 Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and the door will be opened to you.
8 For every one who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking it will be opened.
9 Or what man is there of you, if his son asks him for a loaf of bread, will he hand him a stone?
10 Or id he asks for a fish, will he hand him a serpent?
11 If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good and advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give good and advantageous things to those who keep on asking Him! (Matthew 7:7-11).
7-8 Thus far the Sermon on the Mount lays down the righteousness, sincerity, humility, purity, and love expected of Jesus' followers; now it assure them such gifts are theirs if sought through prayer. In three imperatives ("ask," "seek," "knock") symmetrically repeated (v.8) and in the present tense to stress the persistence and sincerity required, Jesus assures his followers that, far from demanding the impossible, he is providing the means for the otherwise impossible. Far too often Christians do not have the marks of richly textured discipleship because they do not ask, or they ask with selfish motives (James 4:2-3). Like a human father, the heavenly Father seeks to teach his children courtesy, persistence, and diligence.
9-11 Using an argument similar in style to that in (Matt. 6:25), Jesus stresses that no parent would deceive a child asking for bread or fish by giving him a similar looking but inedible stone or a poisonous snake. His point is not merely the parents' willingness to give bu their willingness to give good gifts-even though they themselves are evil. Jesus presupposes the sinfulness of human nature but implicitly acknowledges that that does not mean all human beings are as bad as they could be. How much more, then, will the heavenly Father, who is pure goodness without alloy, give good gifts to those who ask!
The blessings promised here as a result of prayer are not the blessings of common grace (see Matt. 5:45) but of the kingdom. And though we must ask for them, it is not because God must be informed (Matt. 6:8) but because this is the Father's way of training his family.
[NIV BIBLE COMMENTARY Volume 2: New Testament].
[http://twitter.com/sowersoftheword].
JESUS IS LORD.
8 For every one who keeps on asking receives, and he who keeps on seeking finds, and to him who keeps on knocking it will be opened.
9 Or what man is there of you, if his son asks him for a loaf of bread, will he hand him a stone?
10 Or id he asks for a fish, will he hand him a serpent?
11 If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good and advantageous gifts to your children, how much more will your Father Who is in heaven [perfect as He is] give good and advantageous things to those who keep on asking Him! (Matthew 7:7-11).
7-8 Thus far the Sermon on the Mount lays down the righteousness, sincerity, humility, purity, and love expected of Jesus' followers; now it assure them such gifts are theirs if sought through prayer. In three imperatives ("ask," "seek," "knock") symmetrically repeated (v.8) and in the present tense to stress the persistence and sincerity required, Jesus assures his followers that, far from demanding the impossible, he is providing the means for the otherwise impossible. Far too often Christians do not have the marks of richly textured discipleship because they do not ask, or they ask with selfish motives (James 4:2-3). Like a human father, the heavenly Father seeks to teach his children courtesy, persistence, and diligence.
9-11 Using an argument similar in style to that in (Matt. 6:25), Jesus stresses that no parent would deceive a child asking for bread or fish by giving him a similar looking but inedible stone or a poisonous snake. His point is not merely the parents' willingness to give bu their willingness to give good gifts-even though they themselves are evil. Jesus presupposes the sinfulness of human nature but implicitly acknowledges that that does not mean all human beings are as bad as they could be. How much more, then, will the heavenly Father, who is pure goodness without alloy, give good gifts to those who ask!
The blessings promised here as a result of prayer are not the blessings of common grace (see Matt. 5:45) but of the kingdom. And though we must ask for them, it is not because God must be informed (Matt. 6:8) but because this is the Father's way of training his family.
[NIV BIBLE COMMENTARY Volume 2: New Testament].
[http://twitter.com/sowersoftheword].
JESUS IS LORD.
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