Verse of the Day 1/10

Verse of the Day 1/10

Matthew 7:7 "Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you.    New Living Translation (NLT)

Each year in following a read through the Bible plan for the New Testament, most often (if you are following in the order they appear in the Bible) you will be reading Matthew 5 -7 and the Sermon on the Mount in the first week of the year.  It is something that I look forward to while at the same time knowing that I will return to it many times during the year.

The heading for today's passage in the New Living Translation says "Effective Prayer".  Many translations in verse 7 simply use the verbs "ask, seek and knock" and they are not wrong.  But the tense of the verb is continual and in this case the NLT puts it best when it says "keep asking, keep seeking and keep knocking".  We may tend to think that "effective prayer" is a one and done thing and that we shouldn't have to come back to it once it is offered.

I'm sure you've probably gone to a friend's house where you saw the car in the driveway and thought that someone was home.  First, you ring the doorbell but perhaps cannot hear it on the outside.  You wait for a few seconds then you open the screen door (if there is one) and knock on the door.  If that doesn't bring a response you knock a little harder.  That is how it is or should be with our prayers.  When we don't get a response or an answer we keep knocking, maybe we need to knock a little harder.

Most often, the types of prayers offered repeatedly will be strength to face the trials and challenges in our lives.  We are to keep asking, keep seeking Him in His word and keep knocking day by day.

1	Day by day, and with each passing moment, Strength I find to meet my trials here; Trusting in my Father's wise bestowment, I've no cause for worry or for fear. He, whose heart is kind beyond all measure, Gives unto each day what He deems best, Lovingly its part of pain and pleasure, Mingling toil with peace and rest.
2	Every day the Lord Himself is near me, With a special mercy for each hour; All my cares He fain would bear and cheer me, He whose name is Counsellor and Pow'r. The protection of His child and treasure Is a charge that on Himself He laid; "As thy days, thy strength shall be in measure," This the pledge to me He made.
3	Help me then, in every tribulation, So to trust Thy promises, O Lord, That I lose not faith's sweet consolation, Offered me within Thy holy Word. Help me, Lord, when toil and trouble meeting, E'er to take, as from a father's hand, One by one, the days, the moments fleeting, Till with Christ the Lord I stand.

--   In Christ,  Mike    Folllow the Verse of the Day blog at http://mikesvotd.blogspot.com  Ephesians 1:7 In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins,  in accordance with the riches of God's grace.  NIV    

Matthew 7:7-11English Standard Version (ESV)

Ask, and It Will Be Given

⁷ "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. ⁹ Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? ¹¹ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!