I Want It Now...please, Sir?

7 Keep on asking and it will be given you; keep on seeking and you will find; keep on knocking [reverently] and [the door] will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who keeps on asking receives; and he who keeps on seeking finds; and to him who keeps on knocking, [the door] will be opened. - Matthew 7:7-8

This is from the Amplified Bible, I know it is a little wordy, but I loved the additional insights it provided to this too-well-known, often-misused verse.

Take for instance, "Keep on asking..." How often do I ask for something and expect IMMEDIATE results? I am so a product of the "I want it, and I want it NOW" culture we live in! But here, Scriptures clearly indicate that God doesn't work that way (like we needed to be told that, right?!). We have to ask more than once. Like the widow with the judge.

Do you wonder why God makes us do that? It certainly isn't for His sake. In the process of the repeated asking we are given an opportunity to evaluate what we are asking for. For example, in my own life, I have asked and asked and asked and asked for babies... a truck load of them. God has blessed me twice with a "yes" answer, which to my dismay, has only fueled my desire for more of them. But lately what I am finding is a shift in my asking. I don't ask for a baby anymore, not in the same way. God has opened my field of vision to include other possibilities for the purposes He has for me. As we are forced to ask and ask and ask...what we long for changes. In the process of having to wait on the Lord, he transforms us more and more into the image of his Son. Slowly, painfully at times, I have become aware of that change in my heart. The new request becomes not "give me this, I want that, solve this, fix that." The new request becomes simply, "Not my will, Lord, but Thy will be done."

The other thing that strikes me is that there is a particular way we are to do the asking. We are to "reverently knock." I have to laugh here, because this has NOT been my approach to the Throne of God in the past. I have stomped my feet, crossed my arms, cried, screamed, pouted - you name it, all in an attempt to get God to give me what I want. I have even tried the, "if you really loved me, you would..." Isn't that hilarious in a pathetic sorta way?

Now before I get the wrong idea, switching tactics to "reverent knocking" doesn't mean I will get what I want. That attitude misses out on the reverent part. Merriam-Websters says this about reverence: It is profound adoring and awed respect.

This really challenges my ideas of approaching God as a buddy who I can say anything and everything to. While I am not arguing against doing that, sometimes I think we get a little too familiar with the Creator of All Things. It's just like when Bo approaches me with that tone or a phrase that sounds disrespectful. "Woah," I say to him. "Save that talk for when you are with your friends. That's not how you talk to your mother." And even though I want Bo to know and feel he can trust me and come to me with anything, there is a right and a wrong way to do so. In our "Jesus is my best friend culture" I believe we have lost some of the reverence for the Lord. At least, I know I have. Time to get myself to a cathedral or the ocean during a storm. Time to humble myself and start reverently knocking, seeking the Giver of Life and His will for mine.