Matthew 7.7-12

Today, let's just start off with reading the passage:

⁷ “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
   ⁹ “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ 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 good gifts to those who ask him! ¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.


After first reading this passage, it seems like it doesn't fit with the passage about judging that comes right before it. I was having a hard time seeing the connection. But I think they way it connects is that after Jesus has talked about not worrying about life, making our treasure in heaven and not judging, he knows that we as followers of Jesus need help to live this kind of life. That is why he enters into another discussion on prayer here. You may have been thinking over the last couple of days, "Jesus is expecting a lot of us, how are we able to do this?" 


We need to ask God for help. 


This the purpose of his repetition at the beginning of this passage. He says this: “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened."


Jesus is saying, "if you want to follow me, ask God to help you, if you do, he will give you what you need."


So what do we need to live a life of following Jesus? It is found in the next paragraph of this passage. Jesus says, "⁹ “Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ 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 good gifts to those who ask him!"


Jesus says that God, who is good unlike us, gives the best gifts to his followers to help them with following him. But what are these gifts?


This same teaching is found in Luke 11.13. Jesus says this same teaching, but adds something different that is very very interesting. 


¹³ 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!”


The key to following Jesus and living the life he is calling you to live is to ask God to give you the Holy Spirit to help you. 


The Holy Spirit is kind of a weird thing to most of us, we tend to ignore it and not talk about it a lot because it seems superstitious or something. But the problem with that is the Holy spirit is what God has given us to empower us to live the life he is calling us to live. The Holy Spirit is God's presence living inside of us, moving us, guiding us, talking to us, empowering us to overcome our sinful nature's and to live the life of Jesus. 


So how do we live by the Spirit?


Here are three simple steps to take to allow the spirit to speak to your life on a regular basis:

• Sit in silence every day for five minutes and listen

A lot of times, the reason we don't hear the Spirit or know how to listen to the Spirit in our lives is because we got so much going on, so much noise, that we don't ever give the spirit time to talk to us.

• Read the Word of God daily

The Bible is the living Word of God, which was inspired by the Holy Spirit and is one of the best avenues for the Spirit to speak to us everyday. If we come to God's word and ask him to speak to us, he will. 

• Surround yourself with people who listen to the Spirit and allow them to speak into your life

The Spirit speaks through people to people. So surround yourselves with people who are also reading God's word and listening to the Spirit and the Spirit will use them to speak to you and vice versa. 

And the end result, what all this is summed up in, is the Golden rule. 

¹² So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

This is what living by the Spirit will lead you to do, and this is the rule of thumb you can live your life by. 

So sit in silence, read God's word and listen to others. And also, ask him to speak to you, This is the good gift that God wants to give you to help you to live the life of following Jesus. 

So ask.