Prayer is Asking, Seeking, and Knocking

Do you pray? How do you pray? How are you supposed to pray? Are you persistent in prayer?

As followers of Jesus, we are supposed to pray. In Luke 11:1-13 Jesus taught his disciples how to pray, saying “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come.” (Luke 11:1-2, ESV). It is not if you pray, but when you pray. Prayer is assumed for the believer.

We are supposed to pray to God as our Father. We are supposed to ask God for his kingdom to come, for what we need, for forgiveness of sin, for forgiveness of others, and to be led away from temptation. (Luke 11:2-4, ESV).

We can approach God in prayer as a friend who cares about us and our needs and who will meet our needs when we come to him.

Jesus said this about prayer: “And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” (Luke 11:9-13, ESV).

Prayer is about asking God for what we need. Prayer is about seeking God. Prayer is about knocking on God’s door in anticipation that God will open the door to us and show us Divine hospitality. God is a good Father who desires to meet the needs of his children and to give them good gifts of his presence in the Holy Spirit and his provision in meeting our need.

May we be a people of payer as we ask, seek, and knock, and anticipate all God has for us in relationship with him.

A Prayer for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost, or the Sixth Sunday after Trinity (Proper 12): “Almighty and everlasting God, you are always more ready to hear than we to pray, and to give more than we either desire or deserve: Pour down upon us the abundance of your mercy, forgiving us those things of which our conscience is afraid, and giving us those good things for which we are not worthy to ask, except through the merits and mediation of Jesus Christ our Savior; who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.” (Book of Common Prayer, 2019).

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