Historic pastoral reading
Prayer is invited. It is not a vending machine.
Matthew 7:7-11
Ask and you shall receive.
The text
WEB
7 Ask, and it will be given you. Seek, and you will find. Knock, and it will be opened for you.
11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask him!
KJV
7 Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
11 If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?
What kind of text
- Gospel
- Sermon on the Mount
- Prayer
A call to ask a Father who gives good gifts.
How Christians have read this
Common misuse
Used to promise any object if the asker has enough feeling.
What the next verse does
Verse 12 is the Golden Rule.
Older commentary
Matthew Henry
Henry on Matthew 7:7-11: ask, seek, knock. The Father gives good gifts, as a father does, not every craving the child names.
Charles Spurgeon
Spurgeon: prayer is invited. It is not a machine. Good things is the limit Jesus put on the promise.