Bring God In

This is God’s Message, the God who made earth, made it livable and lasting, known everywhere as God: ‘Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.’ (Jeremiah 33:2-3)

Why does God, the one who made all things and knows all things, require us to ask for whatever it is we need or want? To be required to ask when he knows already seems kind of foolish on the surface, but if you stop to consider what "asking" entails, you may come to a revelation of the true purpose of asking. Asking requires us to humble ourselves, not to mention allowing for time to bring a clarification of our wants and needs. Have you ever sought one thing, only to find when you received it the "thing" did not do for you whatever you hoped it would? I realized just how much I didn't really need what I asked for - it was just something to "fill space" in my life, but that "space" really should have been occupied by something else (or someone else).

Asking is a process - not a one-time thing, but a developmental process. To truly understand what is behind our "asking", we have to understand the process. We have a want or a need. The difference is that one of these is sort of like icing on a cake. Cake alone is good but put the icing on it and it is great. A need is like the cake - it provides what will bring satisfaction. The want is like the icing - it provides that little bit of "wow" into our lives which we long for in some way. It involves knowing the difference between the two. As long as we are confused as to the difference between a want and a need, we will constantly be asking for our wants rather than our needs. A steady diet of icing will only put us on sugar-overload!

Although there may be a little "high" from having the want met, it is short-lived and soon we are "let down" by it. What we need is what will sustain us for the long-haul. Asking requires us to be humble enough to actually ask. Some of us will do almost anything in our own effort BEFORE we ask for help! It isn't until we have failed to bring about something that we humble ourselves enough to ask. God wants us to learn to rely upon another, not just ourselves. Too many of us start out thinking we cannot be "dependent" upon anyone for our "success" in life. In time, God will bring all of us to the same conclusion - life lived "independent" of his care and protection is just not life lived to its fullest!

We must put into words whatever it is we need. We often have a hard time articulating what it is we need. We just cannot find the words to express it - or we just plain don't know. Just because we don't know how to put into words what we have need of doesn't mean God doesn't need to hear from us - he provides the Holy Spirit to "utter those inner needs" directly into the ear of our heavenly Father. It calls for us to be open to hearing. It is much easier to speak about what we need and then so very hard to be quiet long enough to actually hear how it is God might plan for us to have that need met! Part of asking is being quiet - putting the need out there and then resting in our position of humble waiting. Waiting is not the strongest suit for many of us - me included. This process of waiting and listening is difficult and requires more of us than the actual "asking" does in the first place! It is the part of the process where we get clarity and begin to see God at work in our lives. Apart from hearing, we have just "us" in the picture! Hearing allows God to be "brought in"! Just sayin!

Knock, Knock - I know who's there!

There are a lot of way to be 'beat down' by the things and people we have to deal with each and every day - just walking this earth today may make you feel that you are persistently beaten down - worn out by hard or unnecessary abuse.  There are those who have suffered repeated blows to their ego, emotions, or physical well-being. The repeated blows have left behind damage that seems to do nothing more than place on public display the defects of our lives. To each of us with 'damaged lives' let me just give you a word of encouragement - God isn't put-off by our damage!

God's a safe-house for the battered, a sanctuary during bad times. The moment you arrive, you relax; you're never sorry you knocked. (Psalm 9:9-10)

What?  The anointed of God, the one who has been hand-chosen by God, feels beaten down, abused, emotionally spent, like his or her life mattered for little in the scheme of things?  Yep - it happens to the best of us! We each experience emotional disappointment at the hand of friends on occasion. Our life canned be turned into turmoil at times because enemies are being constant in their pursuit.  We all can have problems with our own lusts and pride, bringing shame, immense feelings of guilt and anguish into our lives. News flash...we are all just a little bit like the other person across from us!

In today's society, there are "shelters" that one can run to when they are dealing with extreme mental or physical abuse at the hand of another - we call these "safe-houses".  We also should never forget that God specializes in being our "safe-house" in times of trial. Think of all that the safe-houses of today provide for those that find shelter there and you might just see an image of God:

• Security - it is a place of safety, free from the pressures, anguish, or torment of what one have been dealing with
• Strength - it is a place of recovery, allowing one time and resources to heal from their "battering" and "abuse"
• Substance - it is place of provision, affording one the tools they need to get back on their feet again - strong, empowered, whole, and healed

God is just such a safe-house.  David is so faithful to show us that it is at the very moment we arrive in his care, we are able to relax - to find peace where no peace has dwelt in a long, long time - within us. The effort we have had to exert to "hold up" under the tension and stress of the "battering" we have been under (whether that battering is the doing of another against us, or the result of what we have done to ourselves) suddenly begins to ease.  

As soon as we knock - we find shelter! We don't even need to wait until the door is opened, we begin to experience that we are fully inside the safety of his sanctuary - he begins the work of bringing us into that state of "peace" when we first knock! Yes, we are invited into his safe-house, into the very presence of the holy God of this universe. His door is open to each of us - a place to run to, not just when we are in trouble or in times of extreme hurt or pain, but on a frequent and consistent basis.  There we find our security, our strength, and our substance. You'll never regret knocking.  You'll never be disappointed in taking refuge in God. Battering will come - but the provision for everything we need for our health and well-being is found in his presence. Knock and it will be opened to you! Just sayin!

Another take on "ask", "seek", & "knock"

I have two grandsons, two children, one elderly mother, and a bunch of people at work who know the meaning of "continually" asking.  They know what it means to be tenacious - persistence likely "paying off" at some point.  At times, you kind of feel like people just keep asking for more and more, then at some point you almost want to say, "Hey! Don't you ever stop asking for more?" If you look at what scripture describes as a "tenacious spirit", you will find God actually doesn't discourage this type of persistence in asking, seeking, or even spending time with him.  In fact, there is a reward for persistence!  

Continue to ask, and God will give to you. Continue to search, and you will find. Continue to knock, and the door will open for you. Yes, whoever continues to ask will receive. Whoever continues to look will find. And whoever continues to knock will have the door opened for them.  (Matthew 7:7-8 ERV)

If we look carefully at our passage, you will see there is a two-fold instruction to us: 1) Continue to do what you have been doing; and 2) Be ready to receive. It is one thing to ask for something - another thing to actually be ready to receive it.  There have been times in my life I have asked for way more than I was ready to receive - like when I challenged someone to "bring it on" in some manner or another.  When whatever "it" was, and "it" came at me full-force, I wasn't ready!  In fact, because I wasn't ready, I ended up missing what came my way, dropping it, or just plain fumbling whatever "it" was!  

There are a couple of meanings to this word "continue" which I think might just help us with understanding what Jesus was instructing his disciples to maintain as a practice in their daily lives.  First, if you have any type of interruption in what you are doing, you need to "pick up" and "start again".  This is one of the first definitions you will find of this word "continue".  This implies we started something, got interrupted from it (or distracted), and now we find ourselves in a position of "starting again" or "getting back into the swing" of whatever it was we had been doing.  

We all deal with interruptions in the "cycle" of stuff we engage in each and everyday.  They range from subtle, quite momentary interruptions, to those big ones which just way-lay you totally.  I think Jesus might just have been reminding us of the importance of US managing the distractions instead of them managing us!  These distractions, no matter how small, can deter us from the steady course Jesus wants to set for us in our lives.  They can influence us quicker than we might realize, so he sets out this idea of taking control of them before they take control of you - so they don't interfere with our asking, searching, or continued progress toward deep, intimate relationship with him.

We sometimes don't "continue" in what we are doing because it becomes "hard" for us.  This is where Jesus is reminding us of the reward of tenacity - the "pay-off", so to speak, of just being consistent in our daily walk.  At first, our prayers might seem to go unanswered - that doesn't mean we should stop praying. In time, we might just find our prayers get "clarified" a little as the "delay" actually brings about insight into "how" we were seeking the answer, or "what" answer we were willing to "accept" as the "right" answer from God.  

Just as importantly, Jesus reminds us of our openness to receive whatever it is we might be finding comes our way.  When a door opens to us, do we always know what is behind that door?  No, but if we are "at the ready" because we have positioned ourselves to receive whatever might be behind that door, we are more likely to be able to "handle" whatever it might be.  He says God doesn't give his kids a snake when they ask for a fish - but there have been times when doors might have opened in our lives where it seems kind of like a den of snakes!  Is that because God was "mad at us" or "teed-off" with us? I don't think every door which opens is because God opens the door!  Some of us are knocking on the wrong door.  It looks like the right one - but we are simply at the "wrong address" when it comes to what God ultimately desires for our lives.

This is a hard one, because God's ultimate desire for our lives may differ from what he allows in our lives.  WE spend a lot of time asking, seeking, and knocking at doors which are not his ultimate desire for us, but he allows them in our lives because he will not violate our will to choose which doors we knock on! If we are to be at the "right address" all of the time, it becomes most important that we stay as close to Jesus as possible in order to be sure we don't get distracted at those "other doors".  Just sayin!

Good manners?

I always like it when scripture makes things very, very plain - so I don't have to struggle with the meaning - don't you?  The parables are nice, but there is hidden meaning which must be ferreted out.  The truth is truth, but sometimes truth is a little harder to "get" than we might first think.  When God lays out things so plainly in scripture, we rejoice in laying hold of the meaning the first time we read it.  When he lays out things like "don't do this..." or "do this..." without giving us the "why" behind the restraint we are to exercise or the action we are to engage in, we just plain want more of an explanation - right?  It is only part of our nature to question "why" these actions make a difference, or the restraint from some particular action would keep us "inside" of God's plan for our lives.  Since the beginning of time we have "pushed against" any boundary set for us!  Why should today be any different?  In teaching the disciples how it is they were to not only "follow", but to encourage others to become "followers" as well, Jesus often spoke very plainly to his disciples. Why? He wanted them to understand fully what his intentions were.  In terms of how his Father looked upon his followers, Jesus wanted us to know one very important thing:  Our heavenly Father stands at the ready to give good things to those who ask!  First in terms of our salvation through Christ Jesus, then in multiplied fashion over and over again in terms of his grace, love, peace, and power.  All this begins with asking...

Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened for you. Everyone who asks will receive. Everyone who searches will find. And the door will be opened for everyone who knocks. (Matthew 7:7-8 CEV)

Ask - you will receive.  Search or seek - you will find.  Knock - the door will be opened.  Pretty plain, right?  Yet, in each of these, there is something of a hidden truth, as well.  Let's explore:

Ask - receive.  As a child, I was taught something at the dinner table we have come to refer to as "good manners".  We didn't just use a "boarding house reach" to get at whatever we wanted on our plates.  We were taught to respectfully ask for someone to pass the potatoes or green beans.  Then we'd place the serving upon our plate.  Yet, even in asking, there was something of "restraint" we were being taught by using these "manners" at the table.  I am not advocating for a free-for-all at the dinner table here, but I wanted to use this as an illustration of how we often "restrain" ourselves from asking God for the good things he has in store for us.  Mom prepared the meal, not so it would look good on the table in the serving dishes, but so we'd all eat to our fill!  She wanted us to be satisfied and no longer hunger!  God isn't any different - he doesn't want us to come demanding, but he also doesn't want us to "restrain" ourselves when it come to expressing our needs to him.  He wants us to be "out with it" and let him "pass on" to us those things he so desires for us to fully enjoy!  It is as though Jesus is telling his disciples to "come and eat" - the meal has been prepared!

Search - find.  Asking is definitely an action, just as much as receiving is.  When I asked for the potatoes to be passed, mom or dad took the action of passing them and I took the action of receiving what was passed.  Searching and finding are equally actions we take on our part.  If you remember a parable Jesus taught about a woman who lost a tiny coin in her dark house, you will recall she moved furnishings, then swept the floor clean until she discovered the lost coin. What she did was active - she didn't just look for the coin, she also did all she could to uncover it from the hiding place it was in.  If you are like me, you probably put things away "so carefully" so as to be able to find them again when you need them.  The problem is...I forget where I put them!  All the care up front didn't equal the urgency of discovery at the end!  In times when I need whatever it is I have put away so carefully, there is usually this mad frenzy to find it!  Then frustration sets in if I cannot!  The good part of seeking in God's house is that we find things which were previously hidden to us - but it does take a little effort on our part.  I think it is the effort we put into the search that makes the reward of what we find even greater!

Knock - open.  As a child, I knew the closed bedroom door of my parent's room meant I needed to knock.  I just couldn't barge in unannounced.  The knock was both an alerting of my parents to my desire to enter, and the response to enter was an acknowledgement of my need or desire.  Much is the same with our heavenly Father. I am not unlike most Americans who have this tiny hole in the door with which I may "screen" those who come knocking. When we come "knocking" on his door, so to speak, we are not "put off" as unimportant or as someone not worth answering the door to acknowledge.  God doesn't have a "peep hole" he looks through to see if it is worth him opening the door!  In fact, he recognizes our knock.  As a little child, I knocked softly, but my parents always heard.  Even in the night hours when all were sleeping, my gentle knocks were acknowledged.  We don't need to beat God's door down - he knows our knock and he stands alert to acknowledge our knock.  When I "screen" those who come to my door it is more than that I don't want to hear the stories about how these kids are selling this candy bar or that candle to raise money for this project or team sport, or the latest sales at the local mechanic's establishment.  What I really don't want to do is tell the kids or man standing there is that I am not interested!  Why?  Some of them make it very, very hard to say "no"!  Even when we "knock" on God's door, we might not receive a "yes" answer to our seeking - but we WILL receive an answer.  This is something we can stand upon as certainty - God opens the doors for us - it may just not be the door we expected to open!

So, ask, seek, and knock away!  God isn't put off by our asking.  He isn't interested in our apathy.  He isn't disturbed by our knocking.  He is at the ready to listen and respond.  He is open to helping us find what is hidden.  He is continually listening for our timid knocks.  Just sayin!