Devotional Guide -- March 16

Saturday, March 16, 2019
The Seekers: God and Man

“Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. Matthew 7:7

This verse sounds like an invitation to always get our own way. Whatever we want, presto! It’s there. If we want a new job, or to get into a good school, or to have some great intellectual understanding, or even a new car, just knock and doors will open as if by magic. Sorry. That is not what this verse is saying.

Read the verses prior to it in Matthew 7. The gospel writer for six verses has been talking about being judged not guilty, about hypocrisy, about dealing fairly and nonjudgmentally with others. Then he drops in verse seven, and once again a little tiny word gives understanding to the verse. It. It will be opened to you. So to what is it referring?

Those first six verses hold the secret. What will be added is the awesome ability to not judge another because we are honest about our own sin; to not see another’s “speck” because we are honest about our own failure; to be judged worthy of the pearls that God wants to give us; of having the door of understanding opened to us so that we can begin to really live as kingdom children.

Prayer: Father, we want your good things, your pearls, to be added to us. Help us ask and seek for the right things, to knock on the right doors, so that you can be free to give and to open to us. Amen.

“I am the resurrection and the life.” John 11:25
Lenten Devotional Guide
prepared for Homosassa United Methodist Church, Spring 2009
by Patience Nave, Christian Education Director