Paradox Ten - Ask and it shall be given unto you, except.....

Matthew 7:7&8 "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

Yeah, right.

I am certain many Christian's secret response to the scripture quoted above is just that.  Though my own heart is not quite that cynical, I have wrestled with the fact that it often appears God is not listening, or that He chooses not to give any answer to prayer, or to open a door so I can find one on my own.  In some of my darkest moments, it has seemed that God's only response has been a stone hard silence that leaves me feeling, if possible, even more alone than before.

I think many Christians come away from their early years in church - I know I did - from all of the marvelous stories of the Old Testament prophets and men chosen by God, thinking that God must appear to them -  maybe by setting the artificial fern in the corner of their home-theatre on fire - and speak in a booming voice in order to be heard.  Many of us think we must wait for God to clearly and vocally declare which direction we should take before we can take action.  That would be nice, but there are a couple of a very good and very clear reasons why most of us are not directed in this way...

One is the Bible.  The other, is Jesus.

B.C., and I mean before Christ and not before the Common Era (B.C.E.) as it is now called, God spoke to and through man directly.  For a time He even abided with men as a living presence in the tabernacle.  All of this time God promised men that He would one day do something to rectify the choice Adam and Eve made; that is, to restore the right relationship between Himself and man.  God sent prophets who spoke with authority in His name.  God moved men to certain actions by His direct word.  God's will is sovereign and He will see that it is done, and at that time speaking to men and through men directly was necessary.  In the book Systematic Theology by Wayne Grudem, the author speaks to the fact that the Bible tells us this was necessary until the 'final' revelation of God came about, which is Jesus Christ.  In the story of Jesus' birth, life, works, and death, we have the voice of God - and it resides in the Holy Scriptures.

Look again at the image at the top of this post.  Jesus knocking.  Most of us grew up with some form of this image, the meaning of which varies from Jesus knocking on our hearts, to a representation of the fact that we should knock on God's heart and ask for what we desire - and then we are assured that it will be granted.

And yet, was Jesus' request granted?  Didn't he ask for the cup to pass away from him, so he could be spared the excruciating agony of a death on the cross?  Someone told me the other day that they didn't understand why if God was so poweful, Jesus had to die.  Couldn't God have spared his own son?  Couldn't the Almighty have 'done' salvation some other way?  The scriptures suggest that Jesus - however fleetingly - might have wondered the same thing.  But the beauty of the story of Jesus' final hours is this - Yes! His prayer was answered because the pleading was not the end of it.  The end was Matthew 26:42, 'THY will be done.'

And God's will was done, as it is in all our lives.

When we who are believers ask for something, our prayers are answered.  When we knock, the door is opened and all is given to us - but, the answers, the gifts given are within God's sovereign will to choose.  And that means that sometimes - often, in fact - with our mortal eyes we will not see those answers because we do not want to. 

Not too long ago I read through Lee Strobel's The Case for Christ again.  (A book I highly recommend.)  In one section, where he is speaking with Gary Habermas, PHD, DD regarding evidence for the fact that Jesus was seen alive after the Resurrection by many witnesses, Strobel asks Habermas how this has personally affected him.  Habermas then relates a story of the time when his wife was dying of cancer and he kept asking God to save her, asking God to change what was happening, and then, when there seemed to be no reply to those requests -as she lay breathing her last - God, why don't you do something about this?  God had one answer, which came - typically - in the form of a question.  "Gary, did I not raise my son from the dead?"  Habermas would then counter with another argument and God would repeat his reply, "Gary, did I not raise my son from the dead?"

Though our questions, our pleadings, our requests and demands differ, God's reply is always the same - "Did I not raise my son from the dead?"

Yes, God did.  The answer was given and the door opened over 2000 years ago.