“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”
— Luke 11:9

I think many have often heard Jesus’ words “ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you”. These words are used not only by Jesus’ followers but also by people who do not believe in Him. Taking His words out of context, everyone interprets them as they see fit, and usually it is taken to mean that a person has to make an effort — ask, seek and knock until he receives.

“That’s right, Paul!” someone will say. “I sought God for ten years, until one fine day, standing in front of an icon of St Nicholas the Wonderworker, I repented and found Him.” Dear friend, to your surprise, the prophet Isaiah, inspired by the Holy Spirit, wrote something quite different: “I was found by those who did not seek Me; I was made manifest to those who did not ask for Me.” (Isa.65:1; Rom.10:20) It is also written: “There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.” (Ps.53:2; Rom.3:11)

It is not man who seeks God, but the Lord, like a good shepherd, who seeks the lost sheep. And when He finds them, He lays them on His shoulders, carries them and rejoices. It’s the same with you, dear brother: the Lord found you from the very beginning and carried you on His shoulders for ten years, until your eyes were opened and you realised that you are with Him!

“Then why does Jesus call us to seek?” you may think. When we read the Bible, it is very important to read a verse in the context of what is said, and also to understand whom Jesus was addressing. If someone says that He was addressing Jesus’ disciples, and we are Jesus’ disciples too, so He means us, that conclusion is wrong, because before Jesus died on the cross and rose on the third day, His disciples had the old covenant, legalistic spirit of bondage, and they were no different from slaves. But we who believe in Jesus, as the apostle Paul wrote, did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out “Abba! Daddy!” (Rom.8:15)

There is an interesting principle for interpreting a passage of Scripture which is called the sandwich. The verse being examined is the meat, and above and below the meat is the bread. Bread is easier for the stomach to digest than meat, so by using the context of what is said it is easier to take in what it is about.

The veil of the law

Before Jesus told the disciples to ask and seek, He gave them an interesting analogy: “Which of you shall have a friend, and go to him at midnight and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me on his journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and he will answer from within and say, ‘Do not trouble me; the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give to you’? I say to you, though he will not rise and give to him because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will rise and give him as many as he needs.” (Luk.11:5-8)

Tell me, would you like to have a friend whom you have to beg all the time if you need something? How is he then different from a stranger whose home you could go to and plead with just as persistently to help you? A friend is a friend precisely so that he responds to your request whatever the circumstances.

Another time Jesus told a parable that is very like this story of the unhelpful friend. In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God nor regard man. In the same city lived a widow who kept coming to him and pleading: “Get justice for me from my adversary.” For a while the judge refused her, but in the end he decided: “Though I do not fear God nor regard man, yet because this widow troubles me I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.”

In this parable, and also in the story of the selfish friend, Jesus was speaking about how men always ought to pray and not lose heart. But is God like that unjust judge, or like the selfish friend who was too lazy to get up and give his friend bread? Of course not!

The thing is that the Jews living under the law saw God exactly like that. The law of Moses, like a veil (2 Cor.3:15), keeps a person from seeing the goodness and care of the heavenly Father; that is why Jesus told them that they have ears to hear but do not hear, and have eyes to see but do not see. The kingdom of God was in their midst (Luk.17:21), but they did not see it or recognise it, so the Lord said to them: “Seek the kingdom of God” (Luk.12:31). It is as if I offer a man bread, hold it out to him and say: “Friend, have some bread!”, and he answers: “Where’s the bread?”, and I reply: “Seek it, if you can’t see it!”

A good example of how the veil of the law hardens a person is shown in the parable of the minas. The master gave his servants minas to do business with, but one servant hid his. When the master turned to him, the servant said: “Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief. For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.”

The handkerchief in which the wicked servant wrapped the mina is a type of the veil of the law. It was this veil that kept him from seeing his master’s goodness. He thought his master harsh, like the selfish friend or the unjust judge, one who reaps where he did not sow and collects what he did not deposit (Luk.19:20-21). That is why Jesus, after the words “seek, and you will find”, showed the Jews that if they, being evil, know how to give good gifts to their children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him (Luk.11:11-13).

The inheritance in Christ

The heavenly Father gives the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of adoption, so that the child grows up and receives his inheritance. Paul wrote to the Galatians that they were no longer slaves and little children like the Jews under the law, but grown-up sons and heirs of God through Jesus Christ (Gal.4:7).

When a person receives an inheritance, he uses it as he sees fit, as the younger son did in the parable of the prodigal son. There is no need to ask for what you have already received. Which of you, being a grown-up son and having received 1,000 dollars as a gift from your father, would then go to your father and say: “Dad, may I spend 100 dollars of the thousand you gave me on a jacket?” I think such a question would seem strange to the father.

In the same way, to those who believe in Jesus Christ the Father has given the Holy Spirit, and with Him His whole inheritance, which includes all things that pertain to a blessed life and godliness. But when we ask God to give us health or something else, it is like the example above of the thousand dollars and the new jacket.

In that case we behave like the elder son, who was already a grown man and the full heir of his father’s estate, but went on working to earn blessings and did not use that inheritance. If, as his father said, all that the father had already belonged to the elder son, what stopped him from killing the fatted calf and eating with his friends, instead of being angry with his father?

Unfortunately, he thought that blessings have to be worked for, not simply enjoyed, so he always spent his time in the field. Isn’t that what many brothers and sisters do, who serve God hoping to get something for their works and do not allow themselves to enjoy the blessings of God with which He has generously blessed us in Christ Jesus (Eph.1:3)?