Ask, Seek, Knock
- Brooke Singleton
- Apr 29
- 3 min read
“I want them to perpetually come to the Father, asking, seeking truth in His word and knocking on a door that was destined to open until they’ve spent so much time in His presence, they walk away more like Him.”
“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, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in Heaven give good things to those who ask him.” Matthew 7:7-11
The kids were asking me something the other day, and I ended the discussion with a phrase we say a lot, “Ask God, and remember, He’s a God of the YES.” I want my kids to believe this biblical truth deep down in their bones, especially in the times God's answer doesn’t look like they expected, or they’re faced with His perfect, yet hard to swallow “no’s.” I want them to turn to God with the desires of their hearts, our God who is the giver of all good gifts. But I think this verse holds something deeper for us to teach our kids that’s perhaps easier for us to understand as mommas.
Nobody wants to be a mom who simply provides. We want to be confidants, to know our kids intimately, to be trusted with all they carry, just as God desires us to draw close, to know Him and to be known. And that is His design in us asking, in seeking and in knocking. But we humans can be flighty and wimpy in our asking, like a halfhearted teen or a whiny toddler who simply wants what they want and now. But God values persistence and passion in our prayers because it shows that we care about the things He cares about. He doesn’t encourage persistence because He is stubborn and reluctant, fickle and playing deaf till we would just cry loud enough, but because it expresses our dependence on Him and molds us more in to His character as we wait on Him.
He promises that if we don’t tire of asking (the Greek says “begging”), seeking (like you’re looking for treasure), and knocking (like that door is the only thing in the way), we WILL have it.
I want to teach my kids to ask like this, even as I am being reminded to ask like this. I want them to perpetually come to the Father, asking, seeking truth in His word and knocking on a door that was destined to open (because that’s what a door is made for, you know) until they’ve spent so much time in His presence, they walk away more like Him. But the key is to remember that our Father is a God of the YES. If we don’t truly believe that He WANTS to say yes and give good gifts to His children, we will never ask long enough to stay in His presence.
Action steps:
If situations have jaded you, the enemy has lied long enough, or life has just convinced you that there’s no point in asking, I encourage you to ask again. Ask God to renew your faith in prayer and your view of Him as a God who truly does love to say yes to His children.
Meditate on “Oceans” by Hillsong UNITED
Written by Brooke, mom of 3