By Eric Jinkwen

Matthew 7:7-8 NKJV
“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. [8] For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.”

Many christians are familiar with this passage. It has been quoted and preached many times in our churches and especially during prayer sessions. The leader will just quote it to encourage believers to pray. Friends, how do you seek God and find Him? Or how do you seek and find what you are seeking for?
Familiarity with this passage has caused many believers not to take time to examine it closely. What does the Bible mean by “seeking” and “knocking”?

The wrong understanding and practice of prayers has also contributed to the wrong understanding and practice of seeking and knocking. To many people, prayer is a monologue where they come and recite many things and they leave, hoping that God has heard them and will respond to them. No! Far from that, prayer is not a religious rite of recitation or monologue. Prayer is a communion with God. It is a communication. We are interacting with God. This explains why Jesus talked about seeking and knocking.

“To seek” God is to invest a quality time to interact with God. It is setting aside a time to inquire of Him on a given matter and receiving from Him, direction or guidance. You cannot do that in Ten or Thirty minutes prayer time. No! You need more time, going on a spiritual retreat for example.
Look at this example in Luke 6:12,
“Now it came to pass in those days that He (Jesus Christ) went out to the mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God.”
Jesus had to seek God or inquire of God whom He should choose as apostles. He spent the whole night inquiring of God. Have you ever had a night prayer on your own? What about, spending a day in God’s presence, far from people? You alone with God.

Now, when you have prayed on an issue and you have no result, you don’t just give up and assume that God will not answer or that it is not the will of God. You keep praying, you move to seeking then you pray again. That is knocking. In normal life, you don’t just go to a house and knock the door once and when you have no answer, you just assume that there is no one and you leave. Do you?

When it comes to prayer, there are many topics that you will need to pray more than once before you get the answer. You keep knocking untill you receive an answer. It takes faith and diligent seeking with all your heart to find God. The Bible says,
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.”
(Hebrews 11:6 NKJV).

May you find God and receive answers from Him as you seek Him diligently this week.
Please drop your questions and contributions…