The door closes. The answer is “no”. Tears are shed. We move on. We give up. OR We obsess and try to make it happen. We work harder. We try to force it. We get angry. There seems to be no middle ground. What do we do when life’s impossible answers have meet an immovable God?

Matthew 7: 7-8

7 “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.”

Ask (Receive): Humbly present your needs to God, acknowledging your dependence on Him. We NEED God. We can’t do anything on our own. Everything we have is a gift from the Father. And when we ask, He already knows what we need and want. God sent His son to live on earth, fully man. He experienced the root of every feeling we have. God wants us to ask. And that doesn’t necessarily mean we get what we want, but we get what we need. It’s not really for Him. It’s for us. We get to experience healing, reconciliation, etc. We are asking for Him to reveal more of Himself to us when we bring our requests to His feet. It’s surrender.

Seek (Find): Actively pursue God’s will, righteousness, and wisdom in your life. Get into the word. Call a wise friend or mentor. Take a step of ovedience where He calls you. It’s not up to us to provide and fix things, but it is up to us to actively seek His will for our lives and not wallow in the inbetween. Don’t hear me say that you can’t have feelings, but instead surrender them and chase what is good.

Knock (Enter): Persist in prayer, even when doors seem closed, trusting in God’s perfect timing and wisdom. Our solutions may not look how we have hoped. He may not answer us how we imagined, but His plans will be for good. Keep bringing them to His feet until there is an answer or He says it’s done. We may not understand His timing or His reason, but He does hear us and He does care. The enemy will convince us to drop it or give up, but God says to keep knocking.

The promise is not that we get everything that we want, but that a loving heavenly Father hears, cares, and answers in a way that is best for us. Giving “good things”. The waiting is hard. The “no” is hard. The closed doors are hard. But He is a perfect father wanting to give good gifts to His children, we just have to Ask, Seek, Knock.

And until then, I will praise Him in the hallway.

Jesus walked this earth, fully man and fully God, to show us what faith looks like. Jesus knew what His fate was. Before crucifixion, He went to the Garden of Gethsemane and asked God if there was another way to achieve salvation. “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me.” It shows His human struggle with suffering and yet He still surrendered to God’s will.

God created the whole world with his words, do we really think He can’t handle our problems? Scripture is testimony after testimony of how God himself or God through people or Jesus did the impossible. Parted the Red Sea. Healed the sick. Manna in the wilderness. Raised the dead. Defeated death Himself. Prophetic miracles. Virgin births. Surviving a lions den. Fed 5000 people with 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish. I mean that is the powerful God I put my trust in. Unless He tells us to move on, we can ask the God who CAN. We should ask the God who can.

And peace looks like being willing to accept His answer, whatever it is. To say “even if… you are still good”.

I believe there is power is the name of Jesus. I believe that we can’t fully fathom what He is capable of. I believe His plans are so so good. I believe He loves us more than a mother and father loves their child. I believe He moves mountains when the world says it’s impossible so that it can be a testimony. I believe He can do more than we could ever ask or think or imagine, we just have to be bold enough to believe He can.

I believe He can do miracles…

Under The Sun.