Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
—Luke 11:9-10
That promise came straight from Jesus. No ifs, ands, or buts (okay, maybe a couple “ands”); He simply lays it out. The Greek translation of these verbs makes the promise even more compelling. Written in present tense, they are more accurately translated as keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking. What does that tell you? Don’t give up! Keep praying!
Look back a few verses. In Luke 11:5-8, Jesus tells a story to explain this concept.
Then he said to them, “Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.’ Then the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man’s persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs.
Get the visual here. It’s midnight. Joe has unexpected company drop by. His fridge is empty, the cupboard is bare, so rather than wake Mrs. Joe (bless his heart), he rushes over to his neighbor’s house and starts knocking on the door. Nick the Neighbor yells from inside (in a Yiddish accent, no doubt), “Go away! It’s after midnight! They’re your company, you feed them! For crying out loud, we’re sleeping in here!” But Joe isn’t deterred. Have you ever had someone hold their finger on your doorbell? Annoying, isn’t it? That’s our Joe. No one had doorbells in those days, but he just kept knocking and knocking, making all kinds of racket. Nick may shout a few expletives at him, but eventually he gets up and opens the door. “All right! All right! I’m up! Oy vey! Enough with the noise, already!” He probably never stopped the whining, but good Neighbor Nick goes into his kitchen and gives his friend and neighbor as much food as he needs.
You’ve gotta love the guy’s persistence. And therein lies the lesson Jesus was trying to make. Keep on asking! Keep on seeking! Keep on knocking! Because God will answer your prayers. Every time? Always, always, always.
Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. —1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 (emphasis added)
Max Lucado is one of the best communicators of the gospel today. His gift to break down Bible passages in a way that makes them poignantly relevant is unmatched. Listen to his take on this matter of persistent prayer:
To knock is to stand at God’s door. To make yourself available. To climb the steps, cross the porch, stand at the doorway, and volunteer. Knocking goes beyond the realm of thinking and into the realm of acting. To knock is to ask, What can I do? How can I obey? Where can I go?1
Persistence is the key. But Jesus goes a step further, instructing us to pray boldly. Listen to this passage from Hebrews:
Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet was without sin. Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
—Hebrews 4:14-16
Perhaps a little backstory is in order here for purposes of clarification. In Old Testament times, the high priest was the only person who could enter the Holy of Holies, which represented the place where God kept residence among His people. Behind a thick curtain, this most sacred place housed the Ark of the Covenant and other holy items. Once a year, the high priest would pull back this curtain and enter into the Holy of Holies, symbolically coming into the very presence of God to make atonement for the people. In this passage in Hebrews, Paul is referencing Jesus who is our High Priest. By His death and resurrection, Jesus provided for our atonement, in effect pulling back the sacred curtain to give each of us access into the very presence of God.
Coming back to our original question, if you sense that God has not answered a specific prayer yet, then stay on Him! Keep praying, keeping asking, and be bold with your prayers. But as you pray, don’t be like the bratty child who plugs his fingers in his ears because he doesn’t want to hear what his mommy and daddy are telling him. Sometimes God’s answer is no, whether we like it or not. Sometimes the answer is not yet, whether we like it or not. But as we mature in our faith, we learn to trust Him completely, even when we don’t like the answers He’s given us.
Which leads us to a very important question: How do we go on when God is silent?
Ever feel like your prayers are just bouncing off the ceiling? Frustrating, isn’t it? Remember those little super balls you could buy from vending machines? As a child, I used to love those things. You could bounce them to the moon and back. Well, almost. Sometimes it feels like we’re tossing our prayers up, and they’re bouncing off the ceiling like those super balls. They just keep coming back to us, no matter how many times we toss them up.
Unfortunately, there’s nothing even remotely funny about those times when God seems to be missing in action and silent. We’ve all been there. Times when we must hold on with every ounce of our strength and cling to His promises that He’ll never let go of us. If we truly believe He is who He says He is, then we must acknowledge His sovereignty and know within our heart of hearts that what He allows to happen to us always has a purpose. Even on the darkest night. Even when our souls cry out in unspeakable pain. Even when we can’t face another day. Even when we can’t sense His presence. We hold on because we know He’s holding on to us as well—whether it feels like it or not.
Nashville is known as Music City USA, home to both country music and contemporary Christian music. We’re proud of our musical heritage, and we like to think of our hometown celebrities as our own. So it was with a tremendous sense of sadness here in the Nashville area on a spring day in May of 2008 when we heard of the tragic death of little Maria Sue Chapman, the precious adopted daughter of Steven Curtis Chapman and his wife Mary Beth. The circumstances of her death only compounded the grief that washed across our city and the rest of the world. While backing out of their driveway, Maria’s eighteen-year-old brother, Will, never saw his little sister in the path of his vehicle. It seemed unthinkable. Unbearable. Such a horrible, freak accident. Why would God allow such a thing to happen? In the weeks and months that followed, the Chapman family’s testimony bore witness to their rock-solid belief that the anchor of their faith in God would hold.
But it didn’t stop their hearts from aching. After I heard about the Chapman’s tragedy, a song by Steven Curtis Chapman kept playing over and over in my head. It’s called “Sometimes He Comes in the Clouds.” The message of the song asks repeatedly why God seems so absent when we need Him most, but also reminds us that such times are often the only way our faith can grow. How? Because we must trust Him even when it seems as if He’s nowhere to be found.
Steven Curtis Chapman wrote that song back in 1995 for an album project that invited several Christian recording artists to put specific lessons from Oswald Chambers’ My Utmost for His Highest to music. Chapman is a huge Oswald Chambers fan. Such an invitation was surely a labor of love for him. But never in a million years could he have imagined those lyrics he penned would one day be so excruciatingly personal.
We live in an imperfect world filled with imperfect people. Bad things happen to good people. Always have, always will. In 1996, a family friend of ours was bludgeoned to death by her husband of thirty-five years in their Austin, Texas, home. It happened more than a decade ago, long before names like Chandra Levy, Lacy Peterson, or Staci Peterson became familiar to us.
Then there are those other names we recognize—Adam Walsh, Polly Klass,
Amber Hagerman (for whom the “Amber Alerts” were named), Elizabeth Smart, Madeline McCann . . . senseless abductions of innocent children, most of them found murdered or never found at all. Or Natalee Holloway, who vanished while on a graduation trip in Aruba. Why would a loving God allow these kinds of things to happen?
Then there are the natural tragedies like the 2004 Indonesian Tsunami. Hurricane Katrina and her many siblings. Tornadoes that bulldoze entire towns off the map. Wildfires and earthquakes. The unbelievable devastation of the flood that occurred here in my hometown of Nashville, Tennessee in May of 2010.
And then those tragedies of the terrorist variety, like September 11, 2001.
On and on and on it goes. Tragedy will always be a part of life on earth. We may not understand why God allows such things to happen. But we have a choice. Either we can turn our backs on God, even blame Him for these unspeakable heartaches, or we can hold on. We can refuse to let go, even against all odds. Even when our faith is tested beyond our human abilities. Even when nothing makes sense any more. We can hold on because God is our only hope.
Remember when we talked about God’s perspective as if He’s way up high above our parade in His holy blimp? He’s got the better view of your life and mine. He sees it all—every bump and obstacle and detour along our life’s path. That’s why we can trust Him. That’s why we can believe His promise in Isaiah 41:10:
So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.
God tells us over and over, just hold on! I will provide a way for you! In the darkest night. At the end of all logic and reason. On the brink of utter despair . . . hold on!
The one concern of the devil is to keep Christians from praying. He fears nothing from prayerless studies, prayerless work, and prayerless religion. He laughs at our toil, mocks at our wisdom, but trembles when we pray.
—SAMUEL CHADWICK