matthew 7:7-11 prayer

Prayer! We know we should pray more. Preachers preach it teachers teach it and the Bible states it. But… It seems that there is a struggle to do it. No matter how much you pray you should always pray more guilt seems to weigh heavy in prayer. So in order to not feel guilty many of us don’t think about prayer. Then we feel guilty for not thinking about and praying more.
On the whole the average Christian doesn’t believe they pray enough. Why? Could it be we do not see enough answers to our prayers? Or maybe we have the wrong idea about prayer? Or maybe we have never learned what prayer is all about?
What does Jesus have to say?
Matthew 7:7-11
Jesus encourages us to pray.
Some have taken this encouragement to pray and created a false picture of God. People have implied that God either needs to be told what we lack or to be bullied into giving it. Some have attempted to make God a personal genie that if we rub the lamp of prayer God will arise from within the lamp to grant our wishes and desires. Some have made it sound like God is hesitant to answer our prayers until we pray enough that we prevail over Him so He must answer our prayers.

In this we make ourselves out to be God and God our puppet. We make God evil at worst and unconcerned at best. We have to alert Him to our need so we may gain His approval. We make prayer into a ritual to provide all our desires and wishes. Ask, Seek, Knock and God has to answer you. Is that what Jesus teaches from this passage?

Right idea about God from passage
God is good and desires to give what is good to those who ask Him! Vs. 11

If that is true, then why do we not get all of our prayers answered?

Is God our genie?
Listen to what the Word says. You first interpret the Bible in light of what the Bible says.
1 John 3:22, “whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight.
1 John 5:14-15 “This is the confidence which we have before Him that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us
Matthew 18:19-20 “Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is heaven.
Matthew 21:22 “And all things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive.”
James 4:2-10 (Is it possible we are asking selfishly?)

Jesus said, Ask, Seek, knock which implies persistence. If the persistence He commands is not to get God to bend to our will; then what’s the point? Is it so He can hear from us more? (Wimpy)

God is not slow, lax, or malicious, He is good. The issue is not Him it is with us. God desires to give us the best. He says so, so it is true! What is the greatest gift He can give to His children? Not salvation we already have been given that gift. After salvation? God’s greatest gift is our complete surrender to Him. We think of prayer in terms of our prevailing on God. But the persistence God desires in us in prayer is so He may prevail over us. It is in the middle of persistent asking, seeking, knocking that God brings us to surrender. We prevail over ourselves, and He prevails over us. It is in surrender where God is able to provide the blessings He desires. God does not shower us with gifts whether we want them or not, whether we are ready for them or not. Instead He waits until we recognize our need and turn to him in humility. Prayer is God’s chosen way for us to express our conscious need of Him and our humble dependence on Him. When you think of prayer in these terms it eliminates the neat systematic God is a genie in a lamp ritualistic prayer. It puts God in the place He deserves as God and places us in the right place. We are not the master we are child.

Before we ask, we must know what to ask for and whether it meets with God’s will; we must believe God can grant it; and we must genuinely want to receive it. Then in surrender we are ready to receive the best gift God has to offer. The promises of Jesus come true at the point of surrender. Are you surrendered?