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. Matthew 7:7,8
…”Well,” saith the Lord, “you have only to ask and have; ye have not because ye ask not;
you have only to seek and you will be sure to find, for holy things, like rare pearls, are to be discovered if you look for them:
you have only to knock and spiritual secrets shall open to you, even the innermost truth of God.”
…ask as a beggar petitions for alms. They say that begging is a poor trade, but when you ply it well with God no other trade is so profitable.
Men get more by asking than by working without prayer.
Though I do not discommend working, yet I most highly commend praying.
Nothing under heaven pays like prevailing prayer.
He that has power in prayer has all things at his call. Ask as a poor mendicant who is hungry and pleads for bread.
Then seek as a merchant who hunts for goodly pearls, looking up and down, anxious to give all that he has that he may win a matchless treasure.
Seek as a servant carefully looking after his master’s interests and labouring to promote them.
Seek with all diligence, adding to the earnestness of the beggar the careful watchfulness of the jeweller who is seeking for a gem.
Conclude all by knocking at mercy’s door as a lost traveller caught out on a cold night in a blinding sleet knocks for shelter that he may not perish in the storm.
When you have reached the gate of salvation ask to be admitted by the great love of God, then look well to see the way of entering, seeking to enter in; and if still the door seem(s) shut against you,
knock right heavily, and continue knocking till you are safely lodged within the home of love.
An excerpt from a sermon entitled “Knock!” May 27, 1883
by Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892)
From: Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Volume 29