God really shared understanding with me regarding a wonderful verse in the Bible, and it reads as follows:
Matthew 7:7
Ask, and it will be given to you;
Seek, and you will find;
Knock, and it will be opened to you.
At the time I was a manager for a Christian bookstore. The pay was not very good, but I knew
I was doing what God wanted me to do during this period of my life. I had seven children at
home and the challenges of financial survival were always at the forefront of my thought
process. God always would tell me that he would take care of all my needs today, but sinful
me would always concern myself with tomorrow. However, I had a picture hanging in my
store that I really wanted to buy for our home. It was a picture of Jesus standing at a door
with no handle on the door. And it had the scripture, Matthew 7:7, at the bottom. So, I saved
my lunch money for over a month and a half and finally had saved enough to buy this picture.
On a Wednesday night I brought this picture home to hang in my living room. On Thursday,
I rearranged all the pictures in my living room so I could hang this picture behind my easy
chair, and it looked great.
Two days later, on a Saturday morning, one of the first customers I had come into my store
was an elderly Hispanic gentleman. I went over to him and asked him if I could help him find
something he was looking for. He said he was looking for a bookmark or a poster for his
nineteen year old son. He said his son had strayed away from the Lord, and he wanted to find
something for his son that could get him focused back on God. He said his son had stopped
going to church, had gotten a girl pregnant, had decided not to go to college and was drifting
aimlessly nowhere. I made a couple of suggestions to him and then went over to help another
customer. After helping this other customer, I returned to the man to see if he had found
anything he liked. And we started talking. He told me he had become a Christian in the early
1950's. He said he had found Jesus while he was in jail. He had gone to jail because he was
the oldest of a group of teenagers caught drinking beer, and he was sentenced to six months
in jail. (Whew. Times have sure changed.) He spoke no English at the time, however there
were a group of Christian people that would come by the jail every Sunday and preach to the
inmates. He did not understand a word they were saying, but they had a picture they brought
with them every Sunday. He said this picture had been what made him decide to give his life
to Jesus. It was a picture of Jesus standing at a door and the door had no handle.
Then God spoke to me and said, "Give him your picture." Well, I'm not to bright sometimes,
but there was no doubt in my mind which picture God was referring to. So I told this man I
had the perfect gift at my house for his son. I told him I would have to call my wife and ask
her to bring it to the store, so we arranged for this man to come back to the store at two o'clock
that afternoon. I then called Mauri and asked her to bring me the picture I had hanging
behind my easy chair. She asked me, "How come?" I told her that God had told me to give
it to an elderly Hispanic man. My glorious wife of faith said she would bring it right in.
When the man came back that afternoon, I had the picture boxed and ready to go. He asked
me what it was, so I opened and showed it to him. His eyes filled with tears, as did mine, when
he saw this beautiful picture of Jesus standing at the door without a handle. He said, "It is so
beautiful, I must pay you for this." I told him God told me to give him this picture for his son,
so I sure wasn't going to get out of God's will and charge him for this picture. He was blessed
beyond description, as was I.
I didn't have much time to spend with the Lord when I got home late Saturday night, but
Sunday night I spent about five hours in front of the Lord asking him what lesson I was
supposed to learn from what had occurred on Saturday. Finally, about three in the morning
I decided the Lord wasn't going to tell me, so I went to bed. Right before I went to sleep, I
again asked the Lord what my lesson was, and I then fell asleep. I got up at six-thirty to get
ready for work that Monday morning and I wasn't seeing very well when I looked in the
mirror to shave. As I looked through bleary eyes, that were half opened, into the mirror, God
spoke to me. Of course my first obedient, submissive thought was, "Why didn't you tell me
this last night so I could have gotten more sleep?", but of course I was immediately blessed.
God explained to me about the scripture of Ask, Seek and Knock. God said the Ask part was
any question that God placed in our hearts. The Seek was to search His Word, because all
answers could be found in the Word of God. The Knock was to knock on the throneroom door
of God. God said that all questions or concerns were placed there by Him. Of course we are
to cast all of our cares and concerns on God, but He places the Ask within us. The Seek is to
seek the answer to our concern in His Word. The Holy Bible has all answers to all questions
that any human being can ever think. So our responsibility is to search and Seek through the
Bible to find scripture that relates to the particular concern that lies within us. Once we have
found the scripture to support our concern, we are to present it to God. And God said to not
Knock meekly on His throneroom door. He said to come boldly and bang loudly on His door.
Not a weak Knock, but a BANG, BANG, BANG on His throneroom door. He said to come
boldly before Him.
When we are in the Word of God, doing God's will, God wants us to present our case boldly.
And this is any concern that God places within us. So come boldly before God because that
is the way God wants us to present our case. Jesus said it, and I believe it. Let us walk in
righteousness, present our case to God and receive the blessings He has planned for us.
A footnote to this story was how the Hispanic man's son turned out. This man called to give
me a update every so often, and continued to call until I left this mangement position and
moved from Killeen. The first time he called he was overjoyed. He had told his son about how
he had received the picture for him, and his son had been more than surprised. However,
when God anoints a situation, blessings are sure to follow. His son had returned to church,
had started back to college, and was planning the wedding to the young lady who was
pregnant. (They did get married soon thereafter.) He said his son had returned to the Lord
in a mighty way, and he was so thankful for what God had done for him.
Isn't God neat. I know that God could have let this young man know that He was real,
without any help from his dad or me. But God let us share in the blessing. We get to be totally
blessed just because we listened and tried to obey God in doing what He says. I did so little,
but the joy, knowledge and blessing that I received were beyond words of description. Thank
You God for allowing me the opportunity to be used by You. I love You Holy Father God, I
love You Jesus, I love You Holy Spirit. Please help me accessible to be used by You in every
situation and at all times. I love You.