Ask, Seek, and Knock (Luke 11:5-13)

Our Lord Jesus continued to give the answer to the hungering plea, “Lord, teach us to pray.” He is telling us a parable in which He reveals the mind of God how He responds to those who ask Him.

Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread; a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.” (Luke 11:5-8)

This is a story of an unfortunate friend who was visited by a neighbor at midnight. The man dared to go get some bread because he had nothing to feed his friend from a journey. Although the unfortunate friend didn’t have any pity or sympathy, he gave him the bread not because of friendship but because of his shameless audacity.

But if it is read as we are supposed to ask God like that, underscoring the brazen persistence, we are greatly mistaken and misunderstood of the parable. The parable does not end here. It continues as our Lord Jesus says. The point of this story is that the man who went to the unfortunate friend at midnight was completely bankrupt and broke in helping the needy. So, he had to venture out shamelessly to get some bread for the guest. Another point of this story is that Jesus compares the unfortunate friend who was reluctant and unwilling with the Father in heaven who willingly and generously gives the gift of the Spirit to those who ask Him. Jesus continues to tell the rest of the parable.

“So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Luke 11:9-10)

Here our Lord Jesus says the true point of the parable. Unlike the reluctant and unwilling friend, God answers our prayers compassionately and willingly. There are three different types of prayers—ask, seek, and the knock but the answers are always the same—will be answered. Ask means to simply request anything in need like the asking of peace and order when there are some unrestful and uneasy situations. And it will be given. It may be given immediately or later with considerable delay. The answer of God may not always be positive but at times negative. But the point is all the requests will be answered.

Seek means to attempt or desire to find something like certain passage search for meaning and understanding. For example, when you read Genesis Chapter 1, you may wonder what the meaning of Verse 1 is, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Another example would be the word of our Lord Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount, ““Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 5:3) Or, what is the function of church in the twenty-first century? We may seek for the considerable amount of time to find out the answers.

Prophet Habakkuk had a question and asked to the Lord, saying “How long, Lord, must I call for help, but you do not listen? Or cry out to you, ‘Violence!’ but you do not save? Why do you make me look at injustice? Why do you tolerate wrongdoing? Destruction and violence are before me; there is strife, and conflict bounds. Therefore the law is paralyzed, and justice never prevails. The wicked hem in the righteous, so that justice is perverted.” (Habakkuk 1:2-4)

There are many questions like that which require to seek in finding the understanding and revelation of the mind of God. When we honestly and humbly come to God and seek, we will find. The people didn’t know until God probed their hearts how much God had loved them. There are lots of blind spots in our lives that we do not see all clearly until we seek and find it. Here is an example dialogue between God and the people Israel recorded in Malachi.

“I have loved you,” says the Lord. “But you ask, ‘How have you loved us?’ “Was not Esau Jacob’s brother?” declares the Lord. “Yet I have loved Jacob, but Esau I have hated, and I have turned his hill country into a wasteland and left his inheritance to the desert jackals.” (Malachi 1:2-3)

And knock means to strike a surface noisily to attract attention, especially when waiting to be let in through a door. A knocking example may be found in the life of Apostle Paul who eagerly wanted to go to Rome but the door had been closed quite a while. However, he knocked the door again and again and finally went to Rome as a prisoner.

After all this had happened, Paul decided to go to Jerusalem, passing through Macedonia and Achaia. "After I have been there," he said, "I must visit Rome also." (Acts 19:21)

Asking, seeking, or knocking requires one thing clear that all the requests must be made based on the promises of God, because we do not pray to accomplish our programs but the program of God. For example, Prophet Daniel began to pray for God to release the people of Israel from the captivity of Babylon after he learned the specific promise prophesied through Prophet Jeremiah that the captivity would last seventy years long.

“In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom—in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.” (Daniel 9:1-3)

Now Jesus says, “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:11-13)

Our heavenly Father is always willing and ready to give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him. That’s what we really need, the Spirit of God. But we should not read it as God gives the freshly new Spirit whenever we ask. It is true that the Holy Spirit comes in our hearts when we receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Master. Once the Spirit has come in our hearts, the Scripture says that He never leaves us forever.

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.” (John 14:16-18)

So, it should be read as the Father makes us awake that we already have the Spirit within who is the answer of our prayers. Is it not how Christians ought to live? Jesus says, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me.” (Luke 9:23) Jesus teaches, “Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God.” (Luke 6:20) We no longer run our lives any longer but completely rely on the work of another, Jesus Christ our Lord since we have been crucified with Him.

“I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Galatians 2:20)

We shall ask, seek, and knock continually because we have nothing to accomplish the program of God, redeeming the people out of the bondage of sin and death. By doing so, we continually remind of our absolute bankruptcy to advance the gospel of the blessed God until the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.