Have you ever prayed or asked God for something only to have nothing happen? If you are like me, you have wondered at times about prayers that seem to go unanswered.
It happens to the best of us:

Paul: 2 Cor. 12:8 When he had been given a thorn in the flesh asked God three times to remove it, to which God did not. Why not? Well, we are given the reason according to Paul, but couldn't he have been just effective without the thorn?
Jesus: Matt. 26:39-44 Three times Jesus asked for the cup of sacrifice to pass, yet God remained silent. Why? Could there have been no other way?

I believe that some of us struggle with this question when we talk to God. We may have noble causes - to heal a loved one, to see a lost person saved. We may have selfish reasons - to receive some gain, or benefit. Whatever our state, we wrongly come to God frustrated that we have not been heard.
Then we read passages like the one we are reading today and we don't know what to do with it.
As we start this year out our goal for the year is to get on track with what God wants from each of us. To live as closely to what God desires as we can. So we need to understand a little about talking to God.
Read Matt 7:7-8
How do we see this verse come to fruition in our lives? I'm glad you asked.

Ask - Believing

I think we misread this passage to say whatever our little hearts desire if we ask for that we are going to get it. But we know that no to be the case.
So how do we ask? We ask believing.
To illustrate this let's go to Mark 11:23-24
Jesus asked a fig tree to wither and it happened, he says that mountains can be moved, if we only ask in faith believing.
Now that doesn't mean the name it and claim.
The Bible says we are to believe in Christ, in the Father, and in His will. Our believing needs to line up with what God promises. You see, the only thing we can be certain to happen is what God says will happen.
However, I think many of us pray and say, "I hope this prayer comes true".
Jesus prayed that the cup would pass, but what he believed in, what he believed would happen was God's will.
That is how we ask - believing.

Seek - Knowing

Our second task is to seek. We seek after a lot don't we? The Bible says we will seek after the riches of this world. It also says we'll seek after the narrow gate but won't find it.
You see, a lot of our seeking is done in the dark, just clammering around for whatever we may run into.
That's not seeking, that's wandering.
We are to seek - knowing what it is we seek.
Let's go to Matt 13:45. In his parable Jesus tells us that the Kingdom of Heaven is like a "merchant seeking fine pearls".
The merchant knew exactly what he was looking for. He wasn't looking for something valuable. He wasn't looking for jewels. He wasn't even looking for pearls, he was looking for "fine pearls". And that is exactly what he found. And it was so great that he gave away everything to get close to it.
That's what the kingdom of heaven is like. When we begin to seek, we need to know what we are seeking.
What we are seeking is the kingdom of God and His will, again, as written here.
I am the Harris' family resident "finder". If something is being sought they come to me. Why am I so successful finding things, because I know exactly what i'm looking for and I start looking for that and that only. I know what it looks like.
We need to be seeking - knowing that the Kingdom of God and His will is what we seek, and we are guaranteed to find that - to find salvation, to find the answers to prayers that line up with His kingdom.

Finally, we are to knock.
Is it a tap, tap, oh, no one is home? No, when Jesus told his disciples to knock, he intended that they do it repeatedly. Nothing comes easy in life and nothing comes easy in God's Kingdom, but everything is of the utmost importance to God.
Paul didn't have the thorn removed because God wanted to use it.
Sometimes God puts us in tough situations because He wants to grow us. But we are not to stop knocking repeatedly.
Look at Peter in Acts 12:13-16. He kept knocking to tell them of his deliverance. Look at Jesus in Rev. 3:20. The Bible says Jesus stands at the door of our hearts and knocks. Do you think he just tapped once, and you let him in. I'm sure that it took some time, Jesus is persistent. Thank heaven.
Paul asked 3 times, Jesus asked 3 times. We we knock, it's not just once, it's repeatedly. We must be persistent in our relationship with God.
When I am talking to God and I have asked him for what I think is right according to Scripture, i've sought His will, according to what I understand in Scripture, and finally I start knocking on doors. This is the feet to the floor portion. We have to see which door will open.

If we want to see our communication with God go to an entirely new level, we are told to ask, seek, and knock. Are we doing that? Are you asking - believing; seeking - knowing, and knocking - repeatedly?