Ask, search and knock

 In this day and age we often neglect the more spiritual side of faith and importantly prayer, possibly because we do not believe that prayer and a spiritual life are ones that achieve anything. I am aware that people often state "I prayed for such and such and my prayer was not answered so why bother praying it does not work". One wonders what was prayed for and whether it actually was answered but not in the manner that the person wanted or desired. At the end of the day this is really what we do not understand when it comes to asking, searching and knocking as we read this to be the ultimate SIRI with an immediate answer. We have been conditioned to have the immediate response that SIRI gives rather than a prolonged response that ultimately finds us later in our lives rather than when we think it should be. To my mind we have a tendency to separate the three things that Christ tells us to do; ask, search and knock (Lk. 11:9-10).

In thinking this, there is a wondering about the sequence and whether or not this is what it needs to be. In other words we should be thinking A.S.K. (Ask, Search, Knock) as a process rather than ask, search and knock as separate items or things to do. I believe our issue is that we often stop with the ask in prayer and give no consideration to the rest of the process. In stopping we believe in a God is like an uber-computer something like the LITRPG books that hypothesise an over arching computer that controls the online game world that has been created for the protagonists to play in or the system as it is sometimes called in the genre. We expect an instant result or at least a personal response for our woes. We have been instilled by our current culture that the response from a request should be almost instantaneous and if we do not receive a response at all then we get ourselves in a rage. We transfer this human expectation to God in all our dealings with God but God does not react as we think or expect and sometimes the answer that we receive is not the answer that we are so expectant for.

A process not individual things

I am fairly certain that the prophet Hosea was not expecting to be asked to marry a prostitute nor to father a number of children as his prophesy against his current culture (Hos. 1:2-10). In limiting ourselves to the first of the series we perhaps limit the whole process so that it never gets undertaken. By asking we may simply open our eyes to the issue, which may show us a way forward, that we must search out in an appropriate manner, knocking on the closed doors of others perceptions so that they too may open their eyes to the possible solution that God is providing. Hosea relied on God to direct him to the solutions that God wished for not what Hosea himself planned or thought of. In allowing God to guide us in our thoughts and prayers we find the way to do that which is pleasing to God but also find our way through the intricacies of life to find that which we asked for being fulfilled in a way we did not think of. It is often heart rending to find the answer to our prayer after much searching and door knocking.

Our reality leads us to expect an answer the way we want this to occur. Such an expectation is just empty speculation and a thought process based on human thought not on our spiritual underpinning (Col. 2:8). We cling to what we know rather than allowing ourselves to become one with Christ and know God's presence and guidance. The unknown is too much for us it is something that we cannot embrace and yet that is what God asks of us when Christ states that we must first ask then seek then knock. In asking we outline what we believe we want (want not need). In truly putting ourselves out there to seek God's answer we enter into the unknown and our seeking may take us a whole lifetime to derive the answer that God wishes for us. It is then that we find what we need rather than what we want and we are then able to knock on the door to life receiving God's presence to heal the wounds that we have taken in the world. Only at that point will we realise that our prayers have indeed been fulfilled through all the trials and tribulations of our searching as God's answer is often in a process that we fail to see or acknowledge until we finally knock and receive an open welcome in God's presence.