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Matthew 7:7-12 Seek and you will find

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  • 19-07-2020 9:04am
    #1
    theological
    Closed Accounts Posts: 1,831 ✭✭✭


    We're continuing in our series in Matthew, the first in the series is here, an the last is here.

    We're approaching the end of the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus has been confronting the heart attitudes of the scribes an the Pharisees and has been calling His disciples to a higher standard.
    Matthew 7:7-12 wrote:
    7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. 9 Or which one of you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? 10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a serpent? 11 If you then, who are 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! So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.

    Jesus challenges our self-dependence. He tells us to seek out our Father. He tells us to knock at the door and ask our Father for what we need. Jesus is encouraging us to be dependent on our Father. He points out that any good father would also give his son what he needs. If any of us who are evil (verse 11) can do these things then so can our Father in heaven.

    Often Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount has called His disciples to shine before others in the world. In chapter 5 we saw this as Jesus told us that we should be lights for God in a dark world (5:16), and that we should show grace to those who hate us because our God gives rain and sunshine to both the righteous and the unrighteous alike (5:44-46).

    In this passage Jesus tells us in verse 12 that we also should desire good things for others. This is why the Golden Rule comes after this section on petitioning God for what we need.

    Some thoughts for prayer:
    Father thank you that we can come to you and depend on you in our daily lives. Please help us to see that this is a much better path than choosing to depend on ourselves. Thank you Father for giving us what we need today. Thank you Lord for calling us to be a light to others, please help us to reflect your goodness to us by also showing your goodness and your grace to others. In Jesus' name - Amen.


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    #2
    monara
    Registered Users Posts: 171 ✭✭monara


    theological wrote: »
    We're continuing in our series in Matthew, the first in the series is here, an the last is here.

    We're approaching the end of the Sermon of the Mount, Jesus has been confronting the heart attitudes of the scribes an the Pharisees and has been calling His disciples to a higher standard.



    Jesus challenges our self-dependence. He tells us to seek out our Father. He tells us to knock at the door and ask our Father for what we need. Jesus is encouraging us to be dependent on our Father. He points out that any good father would also give his son what he needs. If any of us who are evil (verse 11) can do these things then so can our Father in heaven.

    Often Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount has called His disciples to shine before others in the world. In chapter 5 we saw this as Jesus told us that we should be lights for God in a dark world (5:16), and that we should show grace to those who hate us because our God gives rain and sunshine to both the righteous and the unrighteous alike (5:44-46).

    In this passage Jesus tells us in verse 12 that we also should desire good things for others. This is why the Golden Rule comes after this section on petitioning God for what we need.

    Some thoughts for prayer:
    Father thank you that we can come to you and depend on you in our daily lives. Please help us to see that this is a much better path than choosing to depend on ourselves. Thank you Father for giving us what we need today. Thank you Lord for calling us to be a light to others, please help us to reflect your goodness to us by also showing your goodness and your grace to others. In Jesus' name - Amen.

    A lovely reading but we need to be careful. Depending on God is ok but surely we should first depend on ourselves to do what we can. Too many people are making a virtue out of their dependence on others while making little effort to look after themselves. And while charity is always necessary, we should exercise judgement in this too, helping first the deserving poor while seeking to redirect those whose poverty is self imposed though their abuse or neglect of their god given talents. We should not tolerate waste of talent in ourselves or others.


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