{ Day 352 }

So I say to you: 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. Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him! —Luke 11:9-13

In this passage, Jesus is both inviting and challenging His disciples to pray in a specific way and for a specific thing. The verbs translated “ask,” “seek,” and “knock” are in a continuous tense in the original manuscripts. This gives the phrases the sense that the desired blessings must be pursued with repeated action and with perseverance. God wants us to really want what we desire and not be passive or nonchalant about it. Any temporary denial serves only to deepen the hunger for the thing denied. He also reveals that the requests for the good things of His kingdom can be summarized by asking for the release of the ministry of the Holy Spirit. God is a generous and wealthy Father who truly wants to give the Holy Spirit’s ministry to us, but He also wants us to earnestly desire the Holy Spirit to come upon us with His gifts, fruit, and wisdom.

{ PRAYER STARTER }

Thank You, Father, that I can come boldly and confidently into Your presence. Teach me to approach You with specificity, expressing my deepest longings before You. Minister to me through Your Spirit.

We should ask confidently and boldly for His
presence and purposes, knowing that in
time it shall be done—if we don’t
faint or doubt.