New Living Translation-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. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. Matthew 7; 7-8
It's funny how reading the same verse over and over for years can come to have a different voice and a diction previously unheard and unnoticed. Sometimes hearing a different emphasis during a teaching can paint a perspective for you without realizing it but, this morning I'm simply struck by the fact that God wants me to keep seeking Him and asking Him in order for me to receive from Him. The Lord wants to give and He wants my seeking.
The first part of that previous statement has been more of the emphasis that I've listened to over the years but, God wanting my seeking, my time and my attention, my communication with Him, even my need for Him is admittedly a little beyond my limited faculties. In this life, people that perceivably have everything appear to stand taller and walk a little straighter in my estimations. I compare and contrast myself with them and assign to them outwardly what I'm feeling inwardly, but the truth is that neither party benefits from those comparisons.
Each one of us is flawed and just wears our flavors in a different package which, in so many ways, explains to me the kindness I see in old saints. Watching people that have walked with the Lord for years freely extend kindness and love to strangers they just meet blows me away and shatters pretense as you know they've lived life and are on the other end of careers, relationships, parenting, etc...
But again, the simple fact that the One who knows everything, who epitomizes and embodies love, who has great things for you and I, wants and desires our asking, knocking, and seeking is really contrary to what we experience on earth. There's so much more to that than appears on the surface because in a heavenly, cataclysmic way, the Lord has some degree of vulnerability. The Holy spirit can be grieved as I think of so many verses where the Lord longs for us to return to Him as in Hosea 6; 1.
And so, if God desires something from me, though He longs to give to me, what I am holding back from Him this morning? My faith is my trust that He'll be there, even when others aren't. His endurance tells and shows me that His provided strength carries and enables me when my reserve has run dry and life has tapped me out. His kindness leads me to repentance and makes my mental excuse maker go on the fritz because just admitting that I'm wrong is enough, I don't have to explain why I sin, I just have to own it. And ultimately, Jesus Christ is the hope I have today, when I simply don't want to do the things I know that I should, I have a role model/super hero in my life that has done more for me than any feeble attempt at writing or speaking will ever unveil.
His hope transcends an unexpected check in the mail, even the reassurance that my wife loves me and will never forsake me, and that's saying a lot. The hope of Jesus Christ today is a script when I hurt over a leader that has failed and lets me know that while there is breath in a body, there's always a chance for the heart surgery to come through. And when I go to look at the eyes of my daughter as I see her graduate from High school today, and see her smile as my heart swells for her future and her dreams, I know there's a Jesus in heaven with shoulders big enough for her to always cling to. And that's enough for today!
Happy Saturday everyone!
It's funny how reading the same verse over and over for years can come to have a different voice and a diction previously unheard and unnoticed. Sometimes hearing a different emphasis during a teaching can paint a perspective for you without realizing it but, this morning I'm simply struck by the fact that God wants me to keep seeking Him and asking Him in order for me to receive from Him. The Lord wants to give and He wants my seeking.
The first part of that previous statement has been more of the emphasis that I've listened to over the years but, God wanting my seeking, my time and my attention, my communication with Him, even my need for Him is admittedly a little beyond my limited faculties. In this life, people that perceivably have everything appear to stand taller and walk a little straighter in my estimations. I compare and contrast myself with them and assign to them outwardly what I'm feeling inwardly, but the truth is that neither party benefits from those comparisons.
Each one of us is flawed and just wears our flavors in a different package which, in so many ways, explains to me the kindness I see in old saints. Watching people that have walked with the Lord for years freely extend kindness and love to strangers they just meet blows me away and shatters pretense as you know they've lived life and are on the other end of careers, relationships, parenting, etc...
But again, the simple fact that the One who knows everything, who epitomizes and embodies love, who has great things for you and I, wants and desires our asking, knocking, and seeking is really contrary to what we experience on earth. There's so much more to that than appears on the surface because in a heavenly, cataclysmic way, the Lord has some degree of vulnerability. The Holy spirit can be grieved as I think of so many verses where the Lord longs for us to return to Him as in Hosea 6; 1.
And so, if God desires something from me, though He longs to give to me, what I am holding back from Him this morning? My faith is my trust that He'll be there, even when others aren't. His endurance tells and shows me that His provided strength carries and enables me when my reserve has run dry and life has tapped me out. His kindness leads me to repentance and makes my mental excuse maker go on the fritz because just admitting that I'm wrong is enough, I don't have to explain why I sin, I just have to own it. And ultimately, Jesus Christ is the hope I have today, when I simply don't want to do the things I know that I should, I have a role model/super hero in my life that has done more for me than any feeble attempt at writing or speaking will ever unveil.
His hope transcends an unexpected check in the mail, even the reassurance that my wife loves me and will never forsake me, and that's saying a lot. The hope of Jesus Christ today is a script when I hurt over a leader that has failed and lets me know that while there is breath in a body, there's always a chance for the heart surgery to come through. And when I go to look at the eyes of my daughter as I see her graduate from High school today, and see her smile as my heart swells for her future and her dreams, I know there's a Jesus in heaven with shoulders big enough for her to always cling to. And that's enough for today!
Happy Saturday everyone!