Praying With Discernment

Transcript

GR 670
5/27/1984
Praying With Discernment
Matthew 7:7-12 Gil Rugh

The previous study centered around an often misapplied verse, “Do not judge lest you be judged” from Matthew 7:1. Jesus directs the primary emphasis of this section on judgment in the Sermon on the Mount toward those who do not obey God. Pharisees, in particular, prided themselves in their own righteousness and viewed others as sinners, yet they themselves were guilty before God and condemned before Him.
The principle in this passage for those who are believers in Jesus Christ is not to be involved in condemning, critical judgment. However, believers are to exercise judgment as verse 6 pointed out very clearly: “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces.” This command necessitates discernment and judgment because one must decide who the dogs and swine are. This verse connects closely to what follows in verses 13 through 23 of Matthew 7 where Jesus addresses the issue of false teachers and false prophets. These individuals fall into the category of dogs and swine.
In the previous study another point was that only believers have the ability to discern and judge in this way because, after coming into God’s family through faith in Christ, the Spirit of God indwells them and gives them the ability to discern. Only those who are under the control of the Holy Spirit have the ability to understand the truth of God and are able to exercise judgment as God directs. Since they have this ability, they are now responsible to exercise that judgment.
Matthew 7 verses 7 through 12 fit within this context. Jesus has described the necessity of exercising discernment related to false teachers and false religious leaders. In the midst of this context, He commands believers to be persistent in prayer before God. Jesus is saying that in order to exercise wisdom and discernment, which can only come from God, believers must be persistently beseeching the throne of grace. Only God can give the wisdom, perception and understanding that will enable believers to carry out this responsibility.
Jesus begins this section with three commands given in the present tense: ask, seek and knock. These commands might be translated, “Keep on asking, keep on seeking, keep on knocking.” The emphasis is on persistence. Diligence must characterize the prayer life of every believer. Believers are to be continually asking, seeking and knocking so that God will respond and open the door in order to supply the needs they are requesting.

In an earlier study of the Sermon on the Mount, the topic considered was Jesus’ teachings on prayer. Jesus commanded in verse 7 of chapter 6, “And when you are praying, do not use meaningless repetition, as the Gentiles do, for they suppose that they will be heard for their many words.” The unbeliever thinks that God will hear him because of the very repetition of his prayers. He thinks that the more he repeats his prayer, the greater the chance that God will respond. That brings to mind the idea of a prayer wheel or saying a rosary. Some teach that if you go through a repetitious prayer chain for a specified number of times, God will respond. That is a pattern of unbelief. Unbelievers use it because they think that if they say the rosary or any other idly repeated prayer thirty-five times or some other number of times, God will be more impressed and will be more likely to respond.
Jesus said that the reason we as believers do not do that is because God knows what we need before we ask Him; therefore, believers do not need to go through rote repetition. The purpose of prayer is not to inform God of our needs. He already knows what our needs are.
In the earlier study of the subject of prayer, it was noted that this does not mean that we cannot ask God for something more than one time. What Jesus is condemning is meaningless, idle repetition-going through prayer for prayer’s sake. However, believers ought to be people who are persistent in prayer. There is nothing wrong with asking God more than one time on a subject unless God has already said no and has closed the door.
The same principle is true in dealing with the requests of children. Sometimes children make idle requests, asking repeatedly with no depth to their request. They may walk through and say, “I need this. Could I have the money?” A short while later they come back through saying, “I really need this. Could I have the money?” We recognize this for what it is--meaningless repetition. But there are also times when children have a real need which causes them to urgently request the item repeatedly. In such instances, we recognize the difference and honor the request. One of the values of persistence in the request is the recognition of the need and the burden for it.
In the same way, when we recognize the reality of our need and the fact that the need can only be provided by God, we are driven by the burden to persistence in prayer. If you go to the doctor tomorrow and he says, “Tow have cancer;” all of a sudden you will have a tremendous burden to be persistent in prayer. It is not idle repetition when we constantly beseech God for Him to show us mercy and give us the strength necessary to deal with the problem if He does not heal us. Such requests are not meaningless repetition. We all recognize the difference in this. It does not matter how many times we repeat our need before God. He honors the recognition of our desperate condition when we admit that He is the only one who can supply our needs.
This emphasis on being persistent and diligent in prayer is repeated a number of times in the New
Testament. In Luke 18 Christ gave a parable to drive home the importance of persistence in prayer. Note the reason Christ gave the parable: “Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart” (v. 1). This indicates that there ought to be diligence, urgency and persistence in prayer. Believers should not give up. “Now shall not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them?” (v. 7). The elect, those who are His children, cry out to Him day and night. That shows persistence. As a result, God recognizes the need and responds.
There are three other passages which I have selected on the basis of their using the same word to communicate the idea of persistence. Paul wrote in Romans 12:12 that believers are to be “rejoicing in hope, persevering in tribulation, devoted to prayer.” The word which is translated “devoted” means to adhere to, to persist, to be devoted to, to cling to, to be continuously involved in something. That concept should characterize the praying of believers. We should be persistent in prayer, devoted to it, clinging to it continuously. Prayer should dominate our lives.
Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:18, “With all prayer and petition pray at all times in the Spirit.”
We sometimes get things out of perspective and think that any accomplishment is all of the Spirit so that we are to do nothing. Or sometimes we swing to the other side and think that it is all our responsibility, and we forget the Spirit. Prayer is to be carried out in the Spirit. Paul continued in verse 18, “and with this in view, be on the alert with all perseverance and petition for all the saints.” The word which is translated “perseverance ” in this verse is the same word which is translated “devotedto” in Romans 12:12. With persistence and perseverance, we are to be devoted to prayer and petition for all the saints. It is the work of the Spirit of God in our lives that makes this effective and possible. But we are responsible to apply ourselves with diligence and urgency.
Sometimes people conclude that there must not be a God or praying would not be so difficult. They also sometimes conclude that the Spirit must not be moving them to pray because they do not feel like doing it. But that is not the test. Praying will take persistence and diligence. We must be devoted to prayer, applying ourselves to it with much diligence. The Spirit of God will enable us with the strength and power needed to make the prayer effective.
Did you notice that this verse says we are to be in prayer with all perseverance and petition for all the saints? What has your praying been like this week? Have you been devoted to prayer for other believers? Has that kind of praying characterized you? How much time have you spent praying for others in the past week? How many people did you pray for? Could you be described as being devoted to prayer for other believers? Have you persevered in prayer and petition for all the saints? That should be one of the characteristics of believers--urgency in our seeking God and His blessing.
Paul says very simply in Colossians 4:2, “Devote yourselves to prayer.” The same word is used again to indicate persistence or perseverance in prayer. God desires this kind of prayer because it indicates that we have come to a sense of our own lack and are unable to meet the need ourselves. Have you ever come to that point in dealing with your children? You may desire to give them something, but you realize that you must hold back until they sense a need and understand the importance of having that need fulfilled. If you give it to them before they realize the need, they will not appreciate it and will probably misuse it.
It is the same with God. He desires to give us so much and bless us in many ways, but it is important that we sense the needs we have and realize that only He can fulfill the needs. When we come to that realization, we can then come earnestly and persistently, seeking from Him what He delights to give us. What a blessing in our lives when we realize that Christ has promised to give us what we need when we ask for it.
As we survey the three commands of Matthew 7:7, notice that with each command has a promised response: “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you.” The verse does not say that we are to ask, seek and knock, then see what happens. The verse gives the assurance that almighty God is awaiting the opportunity to respond to us.
Notice also the promise in verse 8: “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it shall be opened.” In this verse the promise is reiterated. There is no doubt about the response. We are not going to persist and see if God will answer. We are going to persist because He will answer. There is a major difference in those approaches.
The promise is inclusive. It is not just for a select few. Jesus says that everyone who asks receives. This inclusiveness is within the context which limits the promise to everyone who is a child of God. Those who have God as their Father and are part of His family are included in this promise. This becomes clear when He says in verse 11, “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” He is talking about those who have God as their Father.
This is the whole context of the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus is dealing with the character and conduct of believers. In chapter 5 the Beatitudes present a description of the character and conduct of believers. Galatians 3:26 says, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” The idea of the universal fatherhood of God is foreign to the emphasis of Scripture. God is Father, but He is Father to those who have believed in His Son, Jesus Christ. Therefore, this promise is for everyone within the family of God--for everyone who has believed in Jesus Christ as the Savior, the Messiah, the One who died on the cross and was raised from the dead to pay the penalty for our sins. Everyone of these who asks receives; everyone who seeks, finds; everyone who knocks, it is opened to him. This promise is for all the children of God.
This emphasis on God’s people asking from Him or seeking from Him is not new. God desired this from His people in the Old Testament. God spoke to Israel in Deuteronomy 4 telling them that when they were disobedient, He would judge them. He spoke of scattering them among the nations of the world. Then in the trials of that situation, they will be driven to seek God again. After being scattered through the nations in judgment, God said in Deuteronomy 4 verses 29 and 30, “But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice.” When they recognize their need and see that only God is sufficient to meet these needs and when they return to Him with an attitude of dependence, then God is ready to respond and to meet the need.

In the context of judgment and punishment of His people for their disobedience, God said through Jeremiah, “’For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. And I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord” (Jer. 29:11-14). This indicates that prayer is not for the purpose of changing God’s mind because He has already determined what He has for His people. He has plans for their welfare, for a future and for a hope. But Israel must sense its need. They must turn to God and seek relief of their burdens from Him. When they do, He is ready to pour out all of the blessings that He intended for them.
In light of these Old Testament passages, the idea of seeking God, of pursuing Him and asking Him for what we need is not new as Jesus shares it. It reminds us that a characteristic of those who belong to God is that we are to come to Him recognizing Him as the source, as the One who is adequate and sufficient. It also reminds us that we have recognized our own lack and our unworthiness and have turned to God as the One who can provide for us and meet our needs.
In the next few verses, Jesus draws an analogy between the human family and God’s family. He shows that what a human father does for his children, God does for His children. He first shows that fathers give good things to their children. “Or what man is there among you, when his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone? Or if he shall ask for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?” (Matt. 7:9,10). In biblical times in Palestine, a loaf was a small flat, round cake, having much the appearance of one of the flat stones of Palestine. Jesus is saying that no father is going to deceive his child and say, “Oh sure, take this loaf, ” then give him something that looks like bread, but that will not meet the need. That just does not happen. If [the son] asks for a fish (a staple of the diet in Palestine), [his father] will not give him a snake, will he? This probably refers to one of the eels which may be caught in the Sea of Galilee, a forbidden food in the Book of Leviticus. Jesus is saying that when a hungry child comes to his father saying, “Give me a fish,” no father would say, “Yes, eat what I caught fishing today,” and give him an eel which he would not be allowed to eat. Human fathers do not do that. They delight in meeting the needs of their children. No human parent would be pleased to see his child starving, then delight in doing such a cruel thing as to trick him instead of meeting his needs.
Our own sinfulness as human beings is presupposed in verse 11: “if you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” Even though we are fallen, sinful, human beings, we still know how to give good gifts to our children in spite of our sinfulness. We delight in meeting their needs. Think, then, about the comparative statement in that verse: “How much more shall your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!” The point is so overwhelmingly simple. If fallen, sinful, human fathers delight to give good things to their children, what would you expect from our Father in heaven? So often we forget that. It seems so simple. Yet if we have an overwhelming need or burden, we sometimes lay it before God wondering if He will really provide for us. Will He really give me what I need? What if He gives me something else? It is a lack of confidence when we fail to realize that He delights to give us what we need.
When I was a child and had a need, I never had a fear that my father would give me something other than what I needed. Even though my father was a sinful, fallen, human being, just like everyone else, it never crossed my mind that he would do something mean or trick me and not provide what was good for me. With that thought in mind, should I doubt whether God will meet my needs and provide what is good for me?
Do you ever pray in fear? I remember hearing a preacher pray when I was a child, “God, if you want to take my right arm, go ahead.” I almost fell off the bench. Every time I saw that guy after that, I looked to see if he still had his arm. I could not understand that as a child. He did not have anything to be afraid of.
When I pray, I do not have to be afraid that God is going to do something mean or that He is going to fail to meet the needs I have. I can come to Him with full confidence and absolute assurance.
This verse has been misunderstood and misapplied on many occasions. As a result, there have been some very disappointed people. Some have had great burdens and have asked God for the things they were burdened about, but God never met those requests.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind in the context of praying. One, these promises are addressed to believers, those who are God’s children. They are reserved for those who have recognized their own sinfulness and have cast themselves upon God’s mercy for forgiveness by believing in Jesus Christ as the One who died for them. These promises have nothing to do with unbelievers. In the previous study on prayer, the point was made that the prayers of the wicked are an abomination to God. He hates it when the wicked and unbelieving pray. Such praying is a mockery.
Secondly, note that He does not say, “how much more shall your Father who is in heaven give you whatever you want.” He says He will “give what is good to those who ask Him!” (v. 11). Ultimately God has to make the decision about what is good. Prayer is not telling God what He ought to do and how He ought to accomplish it. Prayer is submitting to the power and sovereignty of God and asking Him in His grace to meet the need.
This sometimes happens in the human realm. Your children may come to you overwhelmingly convinced that they need something and that they need it now. When you say no, they cannot understand it. They think they really need it! But you know that it is not good for them, so you say no. That is what our Heavenly Father does.
What kind of father would you be if every time your children wanted something, you said, “All right, I’ll do it now.” You would no longer be running the home, the children would. If God did everything I told Him, I would be running this world, not God. What a mess we would have! He promises to give what is good to His children.
In the context of this passage, Jesus is talking about wisdom and discernment. He has already considered this in the context of judging and the ability to discern the dogs, the pigs, and the false prophets. How are we going to get that kind of wisdom and discernment? James 1:5 says, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously.” God delights in giving wisdom, but He gives it in the context of His Word. When I come to the Word, God reveals Himself. The Spirit, by the grace of God, gives the ability to understand the truth of the Word and to see its application in particular situations. That wisdom comes from God.
The Sermon on the Mount also speaks of the righteousness of God, not only judicial righteousness, but the practical outworking of righteousness in the way we live our lives. Jesus said in Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.” We are to be manifesting the glorious character of God so that people might see His character in our actions and glorify Him. Jesus continued in verse 20, “For I say to you, that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.” We find that righteousness in Him as we submit ourselves to His Spirit.
These promises that God will meet our needs and give us what is good do not mean that He gives us everything. James 4:3 says, “You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.” We may ask for the wrong reasons. Our requests might not be so that God would be glorified, but rather, we may be asking because we want something for ourselves in order to misuse or misappropriate it. God does not give those things to us. Praise Him for that! God is not in the business of ruining His children, turning out spoiled brats who run up crying and saying, “'I want this.” That is the reason we do not get some of the things we request.
A good guideline for praying is found in 1 John 5:14 and 15: “And this is the confidence which we have before Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests which we have asked from Him.” We must ask according to God’s will if we are to receive, because God gives us what is good according to His will. God is sovereign--in total control. As I submit my life to Him in obedience to the Word, then I can ask according to His will. I must be sensitive to the Spirit’s direction in this area.
How can you know the will of God? We grow in knowing the will of God just as we grow in knowing the will of our human parents. Our teenage children do not ask for some of the things they did ten years ago. They have matured, and as they have matured, they have become more sensitive to our will as parents. They have become more mature in their ability to make decisions in light of our desires, and so they ask accordingly. As we grow spiritually in the Lord and in the knowledge of His Word, we become more sensitive to His will as revealed in His Word. As a result, we do not ask for certain things any more because we know that our Heavenly Father does not desire for us to have them. That is a process of maturity as we grow in the Word.
We ought not to lose sight of the tremendous promises about prayer in Matthew 7. We have a resource that is limitless. The eternal God tells us to persist fervently and eagerly in seeking from Him all we need. He delights in pouring out what we need. The amazing thing is that we pray so little. In this way we are just like our children. We sometimes wonder when our children are going to realize that they really need something and ask us for it so we can give it to them. It is the same with God. He is waiting to pour out upon us the things we need when we ask Him. Sometimes we are busy with other things and fail to appropriate the particular blessing God wants to give us.
Matthew 7:12 is one of the best known verses in the Bible: “Therefore, however you want people to treat you, so treat them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.” This is generally referred to as the Golden Rule. If nothing else, you have probably seen the first half of the verse printed on rulers. However, the verse should be put in its context. Notice that this verse is connected with the preceding verses by the word “therefore.” This means that it is connected with what Jesus has been saying about prayer. In light of what Jesus has just said about our Heavenly Father giving what is good to those who ask Him, whatever you want men to do to you, you are to do to them.
At first glance, this seems to be a verse that is just tacked on to the preceding verses. How does it tie together? Very simply, in the context of the Sermon on the Mount, we are the children of God who have partaken of the character of God by faith in His Son and who are manifesting that character in conduct. According to verse 11, our Heavenly Father gives what is good to those who ask Him. Now we as His children are to manifest His character in our dealings with others by doing to them what is good. We are to treat others as God has treated us.
We have already seen this theme previously in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus said in Matthew 5 verses 44 and 45, “But I say to you, love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.” We are to manifest God’s character in our dealings with others. The chapter concludes in verse 48 by saying, “Therefore you are to be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” We are partakers of His character, and we are to manifest that character. That is the same idea Paul expresses in Ephesians 5:1, “be imitators of God.”
If I come to God and ask of Him the things I need, He gives me what is good. How does that affect my relationship with others? I am to be giving to them what is good also because that is what I desire for myself. And I want others to do to me what is good. So I manifest God’s character by doing what is good for them. When Jesus says, “for this is the Law and the Prophets” (Matt. 7:12), He is saying that this command summarizes the Law and the prophets. Another way to say this is, “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Matt. 19:19). This is the manifestation of love. Remember that all of the Law is summarized in that you love God and love your neighbor. This emphasis on loving your neighbor means doing what is best or good for him.
The same theme is developed by John in his first epistle and applies to both what we do and to our response to others. This puts prayer in its proper context because as we manifest the character of God, we can be assured of praying in the will of God. It is so important that these things go together. That is why Jesus brings them together in the context of prayer--that we may be manifesting God’s character in our conduct even as we come seeking from Him the needs that we have.
First John 3:16 says, “We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.” Here again we see that we are to be patterning our lives after Jesus Christ, the Son of God. John continues, “But whoever has the world’s goods, and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth” (1
John 3:17, 18).
Notice how this is related to our praying: “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence before God; and whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do the things that are pleasing in His sight. And this is His commandment, that we believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as He commanded us” (1 John 3:21-23). John is addressing those who have believed in Christ. We are to love one another. In that context we have what we have asked of Him.
Jesus said, “Ask, and it shall be given to you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened to you” (Matt. 7:7). For those who have believed in Jesus Christ and who are obeying Him, God bestows every good thing upon them at their request.
It is easy for us to lose sight of these instructions. We are to be manifesting God’s character in our dealings with one another, doing what is good for the other person. That leaves no room for things like gossip, pettiness, unkindness, jealousy and envy. All of these things are ruled out by the simple statement, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” We are to manifest God’s character in our relationships with one another.
No wonder so much of our prayer life is stifled. We think we can run around and tell God what we want with some disregard to the manifestation of the beauty of His character in the way we live our lives and in the way we relate to one another.
What an overwhelming privilege, that God demands of us persistence in prayer. You would think that we ought to be begging God for that privilege, yet He is demanding that we be persistent. We are to come and beseech Him--earnestly, zealously, continuously--for whatever we need. Why? Because God is our Father. That is an intensely personal and intimate relationship. We want to enter into all that is implied in that relationship and enjoy all that He has for us. But in that context, we must be manifesting His character in our relationship with others. We must be members of His family by faith in His Son and living the new life that He has given us. That opens to us all the resources of glory as His children. All we have to do is ask--call upon Him--and we have the assurance that He will answer.
Do you know what it means to have God as your Father? Do you know what it means not to have to depend upon men, but to be able to call upon God? Do you realize that He never makes any mistakes? He is the Father who gives us every good thing. Have you ever believed in Jesus Christ as the One who loved you and died for you? Have you recognized your sinfulness and trusted Jesus Christ as the one who died for you?
If so, are you living your life as one who has believed in Him? Are you persistent in prayer? Is the glorious character of Jesus Christ true of you? Does that characterize your life? Do you manifest His love because you are His child?