Ask, Seek, Knock by Reed Leiting

This week's devotional comes from Reed Leiting: 
In Luke 11:1, one of the disciples said to Jesus, "Lord teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” What Jesus tells them is more of a way to approach our Lord rather than a “formula” on how to pray. Following up in Luke 11:9-10, he tells them to “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” In Matthew 7:7-8, He tells us the same thing again. Ask, Seek, and Knock is not a formula that promises that we will get what we ask for. We do not always know what we really need or what is “good for us”, BUT God does! He will never give us something that is not good for us, no matter how much we ask, seek, or knock! God is our heavenly Father who knows what we need most! Maybe, just maybe, Jesus is saying we need to ask, seek, and knock for more of God’s presence! To approach God as our Father. To ASK and keep asking Him daily for what we need. God meets us in the present, not in the future, nor in the past. To SEEK and keep seeking for His forgiveness daily as soon as we realize we have sinned. To KNOCK and keep knocking on the door daily to allow the door to stay open! Now God is not a genie in a bottle that we go to for our wish list. He wants us to approach Him boldly and pray in faith and He will answer in His time and in His way. The God of the universe wants to hear your requests! If we model our prayer after the example of Jesus, we will pray persistently,
continually, and unceasingly because that is how Jesus prayed! If Jesus, the Son of God, prayed this way to the heavenly Father that we share with Him, it seems like it would suit us well to pray in the same manner.