"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; those who seek find; and to those who knock, the door will be opened." (Matthew 7: 7, 8 TNIV)

What does it mean to ask, to seek, to knock? Jesus says to his followers, "Everyone who asks receives." Asks what? Perhaps more importantly, receives what?

Some people use this verse to convince people they ought to accept Christ. And those who haven't done that yet are labeled "seekers." If they seek, pray, and ask, they'll be saved. True enough, but I think this passage also speaks to believers about deepening our connection with Jesus.

We don't just ask or knock once, get "in" with Jesus, and then coast to heaven. Right? If we do, then what are we still doing on Earth? Still, if it's true that once we believe in Jesus, his Spirit resides in us, and we're "saved," then what is Jesus telling us here?

I think he's reminding us that faith is a journey and salvation is a life. A life lived one day at a time. A life of choices: Will we listen to the voice of love? Will we seek to do what it says? Will we love God and love others? Will we ask for God's help in living that way? Will we receive the guidance God wants to give us?

A more accurate translation of Jesus' words in this passage might be, "Everyone who keeps asking … keeps seeking … keeps knocking." According to Jesus, life with him is about continuing to seek. (Not that we have to question our salvation. He promises he will never leave us or forsake us.)

I think Jesus tells us to keep seeking and asking because he desires a deeper relationship with us. He wants us to keep listening for the voice of love and to respond to it. Jesus elaborates: If your child asks you for bread, do you give him a stone? If he wants fish for dinner, do you serve him a snake? If you have kids, you know what they need, but you love it when they ask you for things—to say "please." Why? Because you know that's how relationships and trust are built—by expressing needs and having them met. If they expected you to figure out their needs and meet them without having to ask for anything, you'd feel like they were taking you for granted, wouldn't you? I think God feels the same way—he wants us to keep on conversing. Communicating our needs to God also implies that when we receive, we'll be more aware of who met those needs and will say thank you.

To keep asking, seeking, and knocking is to wonder, How can I breathe deeper? How can I walk forward in the journey and strengthen the bond with my heavenly Father?

I don't know about you, but I don't have life, especially life as a Christian, totally nailed just yet. I'm still trying to figure it out. My primary method for this seems to be making mistakes, confessing them, and starting again. The times I do best—that is, the times I'm most loving—are when I keep seeking, keep asking God for help, keep listening to his voice. And, thank God, keep receiving.

Excerpted from Oxygen: Deep Breathing for the Soul by Keri Wyatt Kent. Used by permission of Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group, copyright 2007. All rights to this material are reserved. Materials are not to be distributed to other web locations for retrieval, published in other media or mirrored at other sites without written permission from Baker Publishing Group.

Copyright © 2007 Promiseland.

Read more from 'For Your Soul'

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