Lord Jesus, grant that I and my spouse may have a true and understanding love for each other. These dangerous acts have no place in my marriage, so I pray against them in Jesus’ Name. 10 For everyone who asks receives the one who seeks finds and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.Catholic Prayer For Unfaithful Wife. I can’t get up and give you anything.’ 8 I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you the bread because of friendship, yet because of your shameless audacity he will surely get up and give you as much as you need.ĩ “So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you seek and you will find knock and the door will be opened to you. The door is already locked, and my children and I are in bed. Lord Jesus, I ask that these words may come with fresh and vital meaning to my heart that there are things I need to ask for and take immediately from your hand, others that I need to seek for, still others for which I need to knock and wait, and knock again, knowing that in every case without exception your word is sure.ĥ Then Jesus said to them, “Suppose you have a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves of bread 6 a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have no food to offer him.’ 7 And suppose the one inside answers, ‘Don’t bother me. We come before God and boldly and repeatedly ask, each time making an endeavor to enter in, for we are resting on the solid assurance that what Jesus says here is true, Knock, and it shall be opened. We are looking for an opportunity, seeking an entrance into an area that is now restricted from us. We hunger, perhaps, after knowledge or friendship or as the Word of God says, Hungering and thirsting after righteousness (Matthew 5:6). We long to move into that area, we feel God leading us, calling us, to be this or do that. Perhaps we have an unshakable desire to begin a certain type of work or ministry from which we are now excluded. Someone has perhaps erected a barrier against our witness or against our friendship and we are seeking to surmount that, to get behind the wall of resistance and to have an opportunity freely and openly to speak, or to share, or to enter into a life. It is a request for admittance, repeated if necessary, and it suggests situations where we seek an entrance, or an opportunity. A knock is not a single rap, it is a series of raps. Here, both time and repetition are involved. There is still a third level which involves knocking. Something is lost, hidden from us, and prayer then becomes a search, a plea for insight, for understanding, for an unraveling of the mystery with which we are confronted. Jesus says there are areas of life that require more than asking there must be seeking, searching. Seeking is not a simple act, it is a process, a series of acts. You cannot think of what it means to seek without seeing that our Lord injects here an element of time. Let him ask and it shall be given.Ī second level of prayer is denoted by this word seek. What? Let him ask of God who giveth to all men liberally and upbraideth not, (James 1:5 KJV). Is that not what James says, If any man lack wisdom. Simply ask, that is all, ask, and immediately the answer is given. If we need love, courage, wisdom, power, patience, they all lie in this realm. For instance, reading through the New Testament, it becomes clear that our need for Christlike attributes lies in this category. What he means is that there are certain needs which require a mere asking to be immediately and invariably met, and the range of these needs is far wider than we usually give credit for. The simplest and easiest level, of course, is ask. The circumstances of each are vastly different, but the answer is the same. There you have a little formula for prayer. You can remember them, incidentally, if you will take note of the fact that the initial letters spell the word ask, a ask, s seek, k knock. Take careful note of what Jesus says, for he suggests that there are three levels of prayer: ask, seek, and knock.
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