‘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; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. ‘Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 7:7-12 NIVUK
Have you ever felt completely out of your depth?
I have to admit that I have – and not just on the occasion in a hotel pool when I slipped and my wife had to haul me to safety.
I felt it on the mission field, when everyone around me seemed to be eminently better suited than me.
I’ve felt it in numerous jobs, when I’ve been released from training onto the ‘shop floor’.
I felt it for the first few times when I journeyed to London as part of my job and met with senior managers.
Most of all, I felt it when I suddenly became a father.
It happens to all of us sooner or later. It’s that feeling when the situation in front of you appears to exceed your resources to cope with it.
I believe this could be why Jesus appears to break with His deeply moralistic teaching on the rights and wrongs of the issues of the day and now appears to be talking about prayer.
After all, His requirements are not simple. Any passive reading of the Sermon on the Mount reveals simple maxims and sayings that are easy to say and not so easy to do. I wonder if the crowd – and, more particularly, The Twelve – were looking at each other and asking, ‘Is He serious? Does He really expect us to live like this?’
Maybe that's also the way you’ve reacted. It seems to be a Mission Impossible – a standard to which we will never reach. We feel like someone who’s been asked to climb an Alpine mountain during winter in shorts, a t-shirt and trainers. The task seems way beyond us and it seems dangerous to even try.
If the Sermon on the Mount has intimidated us, these verses should calm our fears. Because, as Paul explains to the Philippians, God has high standards, but He also provides the resources to meet them:
In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.
Philippians 1:4-6 NIVUK
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed – not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence – continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfil his good purpose.
Philippians 2:12-13 NIVUK
So where do these resources come from? The answer is simple:
God.
These verses start by telling us how we receive them – by persisting.
There are three verbs Jesus uses to describe how we should approach God in our time of need: to ask, to seek, and to knock. It has been noted by several commentators that these are three actions that increase in effort and intensity.
Now this seems a little strange. Why would God expect us to expend such effort to obtain something we need?
Could it be that He is teaching us an important lesson: that growth in these areas is not something that comes easily, but is something we will need to work on with a degree of effort?
That would not surprise me.
After all, the verses in Philippians present us as co-workers with God with the purpose of becoming more like Him, not just passive passengers.
I once heard people in my church discussing how hard it was to ride a tandem bicycle, particularly if you were on the front? Why? Because the person at the front does a lot of the pedalling and all the steering, but cannot see if the person at the back is expending the same effort – and often they aren’t!
Could it be that by asking us to approach Him for help in this way, God is teaching us to not be like the rear passenger on a tandem bike?
It would not surprise me in the least.
What He does promise, is that when we put in the effort, then He will work with us. We will receive the resources we need to do the work.
We not only see how we receive these resources, but why we receive them – we receive them because God is our Father, and like all good fathers, He will give us good things.
Now, here we can quickly reach a big misunderstanding.
There are many who quote these verses to say that it’s God’s will for us to be rich. They use these verses to justify seeking things from God like obscene wealth, expensive cars, big houses, the ability to eat in fancy restaurants and the opportunity to put all that on social media, believing that it’s a witness to God’s generosity.
The whole thing reached the completely ridiculous point just after the Covid restrictions were lifted in the States when an elderly multi-millionaire prosperity preacher had the senseless gall to ask his followers to give him money so he could buy himself a private jet.
Really.
And at a time when most people were experiencing serious financial difficulties.
That is unconscionable.
These verses do not teach or support that. To believe so is absurd.
Why would they teach that God wants to make us wealthy when just a few verses earlier Jesus taught that we cannot worship God and money (Matthew 6:24)?
Why would it be the case when the teaching of the New Testament is that the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil (2 Timothy 6:10)?
Why would it be the case when every single apostle ended up slain or in exile as a consequence of following Jesus?
Why would it be the case when those who even want to get rich fall into a temptation and a trap (1 Timothy 6:9)?
So there is absolutely no way that these verses can be used to justify the so-called Prosperity ‘Gospel’. No way at all. It is completely out of the question.
But what do they mean?
Let me explain this by way of an example. When you have a young child, sometimes you have to try to get them to eat food (usually vegetables) that they don’t like. You know you might have to be sneaky and hide them somehow – or prepare yourself for a screaming match – but you do it because it’s good for their development.
Or when they’re older, you sometimes have to expose your children to things they will find hurtful – like, for example, loving discipline, or loss of a part-time job, or failing a test or two – but you know will be good for their development as human beings.
Things that are good for us are not always nice, or comfortable, or, in the case of vegetables (as far as I'm concerned), not particularly nice-tasting.
We know this. Every good parent knows it. But we want our children to have these experiences because we want them to grow up big and strong and be everything they can be.
So now we turn our gaze to the Lord. And we see these verses:
Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
James 1:16-17 NIVUK
And our assumption is that the good things in life – the candy canes and chips and chocolate sauce – come from God, and the bad things in life – the broccoli and lettuce and, worst of all, the Brussels sprouts – come from the devil.
But hold on: what about these verses, as Job suffers from his second wave of trials?
His wife said to him, ‘Are you still maintaining your integrity? Curse God and die!’ He replied, ‘You are talking like a foolish woman. Shall we accept good from God, and not trouble?’ In all this, Job did not sin in what he said.
Job 2:9-10 NIVUK
And suddenly we’re on our heels. We’re reeling. We don’t quite know what we should make of this.
Maybe it would make more sense if we went back to the illustration of a parent with their child. Some days are candy canes; others are broccoli. Some days are ice cream, others are Brussels sprouts.
But our God made them both.
And the Bible is clear – He made them both for our good (Romans 8:28).
Maybe you might object to this. Maybe you see comparing human suffering to a child refusing to eat their greens as being demeaning and diminishing the impact of suffering on our lives.
But I have to disagree. I believe that right now, when our problems appear to far exceed our ability to cope, we might see them as overwhelming. However, from the eternal perspective, we may view our lives entirely differently. That’s not to in any way diminish the impact our problems have on us right now, or the distress they bring to us. Far be it for me to do something like that. But it is to say that one day in the future our perspective may well be different.
Paul was one of many in the Early Church who suffered greatly under the poisonous capriciousness of Nero. Look at these incredible words He wrote:
For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.
2 Corinthians 4:17 NIVUK
Right now, our troubles might seem to be too much. But my personal belief is that the final step of recovery after any affliction is to be able to say these words to God with the psalmist:
It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.
Psalms 119:71 NIVUK
‘It was good’. Why? Because God is good. All the time.
Even when we suffer. Sometimes especially when we suffer.
So we see how we receive them and why we receive them. We now move on to see the purpose in giving them.
And this reason sums up all the practical and moral teaching of the tough-talking Sermon on the Mount:
So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 7:12 NIVUK
Or, as Jesus said earlier:
Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
Matthew 5:48 NIVUK
The whole reason for these verses, and indeed the entire Sermon, is for us to be complete and perfect in our obedience of God. That means treating others – always – as we would wish to be treated: not in a way that contravenes the law (so we do not permit thievery or murder because we would like someone to let us off with a crime), but one that upholds it.
That is the purpose of this Sermon.
It is not an austere, po-faced recital of religious dogma to make us miserable. It is instead a statement of the boundaries within which we will live life to all its fullness (John 10:10).
As Psalm 34 teaches us:
Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Whoever of you loves life and desires to see many good days, keep your tongue from evil and your lips from telling lies. Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it.
Psalms 34:11-14 NIVUK
This is at the very heart of this Sermon.
The reason why we don’t enjoy such a life is not because it is unrealistic. It can’t be. God has given us everything we need to live a holy life (2 Peter 1:3).
No, it is because we are wilful and give into temptations that violate the guidance and teaching Jesus has given us and lead us into temptation and evil. It is our fault, not God’s (James 1:13-15).
So these verses are not at all a blank cheque for us to demand excess wealth from God. The idea is patently absurd.
But if we feel intimidated and overwhelmed by the need to be holy in the situation we face each day, these verses are an assurance that God will hear our cry and give us the resources we need.
Prayer
Lord Jesus, thank you for this wonderful promise that you always give me good things- everything I need – to face each moment, even if at the time I don’t perceive it as good. Help me to seek to please you in all moments of my life. Amen
Questions
1. Why can’t these verses be understood as a black cheque to get what we want from God? What do they mean instead?
2. Are you able yet to say that all your suffering has had a good purpose, and therefore it was good that you passed through it?
3. What is God’s purpose in these verses? How has He shown it in your life?
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