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Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Ask, Seek, Knock...Receive

What is that you said?

"For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God." -Deuteronomy 4:24

You are a jealous God? What do you have to be jealous of?

I am not like you. I don't have anything that you haven't given me.

Oh - wait a minute.

I don't have anything that you haven't given me?

I don't have anything that you haven't given me.

Hmmmm...

I do not have anything that YOU haven't given me!

Yikes!  My home? My husband? My kids? My friends?

My peace...my comfort...my assurance.

Your love! Your grace! Your forgiveness! Your sufficiency! Your redemption!

Should I ask for more? Do I dare? Won't I bother you? What if I ask for the wrong things?

 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks find, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. - Luke 11:9-10

You want me to ask? You want me to seek you? You want me knock on your door repeatedly and make my requests known to you?

Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.  -Jeremiah 33:3

And he said to them, "Which of you who has a friend will go to him at midnight and say to him, 'Friend, lend me three loaves, for a friend of mine has arrived on a journey, and I have nothing to set before him'; and he will answer from within, 'Do not bother me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed. I cannot get up and give you anything'? I tell you, though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his impudence he will rise and give him whatever he needs." -Luke 11:5-8

The Lord looks down from heaven on the children of man, to see if there are any who understand, who seek after God. -Psalm 14:2

Ask. Do not be afraid to ask.  Ask again and again.
Seek. Seek Me, the One who loves you more than any other. I have created you. I know you.
Knock. Let your request be made boldly.
Then, dear child of mine, receive what it is I have for you.

Receive? You have more for me?

 "What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" -Luke 11:11-13


But Father...sometimes I DO cry out and ask for things from you and you don't answer me!  What then? Where are you? I have heard this. I thought you wanted to give good things to me. So...why don't I have the things I am asking you to give me?

Seek Me. 

 But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search him with all your heart and with all your soul. -Deuteronomy 4:29

I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. -Proverbs 8:17 

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.  -Psalm 40:16

But may all who seek you rejoice and be glad in you; may those who love your salvation say continually, "Great is the Lord!" -Matthew 6:33

Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! -1 Chronicles 16:11

Oh yes, I am beginning to see. Please show me more.

         In my distress I called upon the Lord; to my God I cried for help. From his temple he heard my voice, and my cry to him reached his ears. - Psalm 18:6

Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. -Jeremiah 29:12-13

But know that the LORD has set apart the godly for himself; the LORD hears when I call to him
- Psalm 4:3
Thank you for hearing my voice Lord. Thank you for hearing my cries. Give me strength to seek you and your will.  Lead me to your presence where my requests are laid bare before you. Help me to hear your answers to my prayers.

 Thus says the Lord of hosts: I am jealous for Zion with great jealousy, and I am jealous for her with great wrath. -Zachariah 8:2

"But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ - by grace you have been saved - and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.  For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." -Ephesians 2:2-10

I think I understand more now Lord. You are not jealous OF me. You are jealous FOR me. You were jealous FOR your people in Zion. Because of your great love for your people, you are jealous for those who belong to you. You will guard and protect what is yours. My best, is not all that I see here on earth; it is even in "the coming ages". 

Help me to seek that which you desire, that which fulfills a picture larger than I can see.

So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen.  For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. -2 Corinthians 4:16-18

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