Last week I received an email from our pastor (not a personal one, but the global church blast)... anyway, Matt asked these words of us, "are you guilty of asking but not seeking?" Sure, maybe it's a simple, self-explanatory question... but it really got me thinking. My prayers so often begin with "Lord, I ask for..." I'm always asking! You would think it would count for something, because the rest of the sentence usually ends with "...wisdom in this situation, favor, direction, etc. etc." Maybe not bad stuff to ask for, but I just think it's funny that when I looked back on my prayers, I immediately thought, "Yep. I sure do "ask" alot! So (there is a point here), I decided that I need to start seeking more. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad thing to ask of God. In fact, God tells us to ask!
John 16:23 "I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name."
John 16:24 "...Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full."
John 14:13 "And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father."
Hebrews 4:16 "Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need."
...You get the point... But, we must maximize our asking with seeking. It's pretty funny that I've been asking God for wisdom in a particular area of my life for several months, and when I finally decided to seek, to crack my Bible open, the answers literally sprung at me from the pages!!!! In 2 instances, during the same sit-down, I was flipping around for another verse when several other verses jumped off the page, into my lap, and brought me the answers I had been asking for. Sometimes my answers require a little bit of digging on my end to find the answers, but I can imagine that sometimes God must be thinking, "If she would only open her Bible!!!"
It's not that God is so mysterious that He withholds answers from us... it's just that we are sometimes too lazy to find it in the Answer He has alreay given to us in His Word.
Matthew 7:7-8 "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; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. "
Luke 11:9-10 "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; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. "
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