The reading for Thursday of the first week of Lent is taken from Matthew 7:7 12th verse Jesus said to his disciples, 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. The one who seeks finds. And to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

Which one of you would hand his son a stone when he asked for a loaf of bread? Or snake when he asks for a fish? If you then who are wicked, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give good things to those who ask Him? Do to others whatever you would have them do to you. This is the law and the prophets. Ask, seek and knock could be read simply as emphasis, like really ask, ask again, really, really ask.

But they’re three very different things. When you ask God for something, you need to pay attention for the answer to come to you. It’s not just boom. Automatically you pray and boom, you get an answer. That can happen, but more likely it’s simply, I need to ponder how the answer is going to come. And that’s the work of seeking.

And then knocking is when you find the new insight, then it’s going to be opening a whole new world to you. So wonder and ponder with me what it means to really ask and to seek and to knock. Sam satan. The Closing Prayer Father, your heart is filled with a desire to teach, to awaken, to lead. Help us never to not pay attention to the ways in which you have chosen to communicate with us. And we ask this in Jesus name, Amen.