Step back now and see the whole passage as one piece. Matthew 7:7-11 does not stand alone. It comes at the end of a long string of commands we cannot keep, and just before Jesus sends us through the narrow gate. It is the engine room of the Sermon on the Mount, the...
If the Father truly gives good things to those who ask, why is prayer so often our last resort instead of our first? Here is the diagnosis: somewhere deep down, we are not sure what kind of Father we have. What you believe about the Father shapes how you pray, and for...
Notice how casually Jesus slips in the word evil. He offers no argument for it; He simply assumes it. If you then, who are evil. The solidarity of the human race in sin is so basic to Jesus that He states it in passing while making a point about something else. This...
Jesus knows that some of us will hear the promise of verse 8 and still pull back, so He does what He so often does: He paints a picture. In Galilee, the small round loaves of bread looked remarkably like the smooth stones along the shore, and some of the fish in the...
Look carefully at the grammar of the promise. It will be given. It will be opened. Theologians call these divine passives, and they carry a quiet but massive point: the weight of the promise does not rest on the one praying. It rests on the God who answers. Jesus does...
