“Red-Letter Living: Asking with Confidence”
Sunday, January 29, 2023
Community Statement:
We believe in the power of prayer… to ask, so we can receive; to seek, so we can find; to knock, that the door will be opened. Our confidence in prayer is not because we are deserving, but because our heavenly Father is so loving and giving.
Matthew 7:7-12 (NIV)
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.”
The Golden Request -
“Ask, and it will be given to you…”
I John 5:14-15 (NIV)
This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us – whatever we ask – we know that we have what we asked of him.
James 4:2-3 (NIV)
You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives…
“Seek and you will find…”
Matthew 6:33 (NIV)
But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.
“Knock and the door will be opened…”
The Golden Rewarder -
Matthew 7:9-11 (NIV)
“Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”
Hebrews 11:6 (NIV)
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
The Golden Rule -
Matthew 7:12 (CSB)
“Therefore, whatever you want others to do for you, do also the same for them, for this is the Law and the Prophets.”