Yes! There is Good News! 7.22.2017

We are on a journey. Our destination is the kingdom of God. And in the last article we read that Jesus told us to “ask, seek, and knock.” Furthermore He said that if we would ask, we would receive; if we sought, we would find; and if we would knock, the door would be opened to us.

These three verbs are, in scripture, in the imperative mode. The imperative mode indicates that they are used for urgency, necessity, and are given as a command. So I guess they are important to pay attention to. I guess we need to know how to proceed with them!

Ask: when I ask something of God, I consider it to be a prayer. Let’s take a look at a couple of scriptures on this. 1 John 3:21-22, “Beloved … we have confidence before God and receive from Him anything we ask, because we obey His commands and do what pleases Him.” God is there to give us anything we ask. Yet He requires our obedience and we must do what pleases Him. As a quick aside, what is it that pleases God? In Hebrews 11:6 it says, “without faith it is impossible to please God.” Another scripture on this subject, also found in 1 John, tells us, “This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And we know that if He hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of Him.” Show God that you truly seek His kingdom by asking in prayer with faith. He will be pleased!

Seek: when you cannot find a very precious item that you own, you seek for it and do not give up until you find it. Psalm 9:10 says, “Those who know your name will trust in you, for you, Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.” (Remember, last week we saw that the word “seek” means to “beat a path.”) Never give up coming before God as you seek the kingdom first.

Knock: what is your position when you knock upon a door? You must be right in front of the door. I can’t knock on my neighbor’s door while sitting in my own living room. In the book of Hebrews we have a couple of scriptures concerning this: 4:14, “We have a great high priest who has gone through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, … 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.” And in 10:19, “Therefore brethren, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, … Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith.” Wow, what a beautiful promise. It is as if before our hand hits the door, the door swings open to us.

If you want to find the Joslyn castle, ask me. If you want to find the Kingdom of God, you’d better ask Jesus Christ – it is He that has gone through the heavens and resides there, ever ready to help us.

And that’s good news!