The Lord's desire for His children to experience fellowship and communion with Him is so great that He waits patiently at the door, persistently knocking, at least for the time being, until we finally answer and open the door to Him.  His example at the door of our hearts, which is so willfully shut against Christ, is meant to encourage us at His door of grace, which is graciously open to all who will come to Him in prayer. "Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.  For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened" (Matthew 7:7-8).

When we pray we are not simply just to ask, but we are to come seeking the Lord, with an earnest desire to know His heart and His will, and a willingness to trust Him that He knows better for us what we need, and to leave it to Him to give us those things that will prosper us spiritually and to deny us those things which will harm us.  We are also instructed to not only ask, but to knock as one expecting the owner of the house to be home; we are to keep knocking until the door is open to us and we meet face to face with the one we have come to visit, and welcomed to enter into His presence and receive what we have come to His house inquiring of.  There is a difference between praying and petitioning.  When we ask with the added fervency of seeking and knocking we have entered into the realm of a true petitioner at the door of grace, and we will surely have our hearts desire.  King David was a true knocker at the house of the Lord.  We can hear the earnest petition of his heart which refused to be satisfied with anything but the presence of the Owner of the house:  "One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek:  that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple" (Psalm 27:4). 

The answer we are looking for is waiting for us at the door in the person of Jesus Christ.  Our faithful, loving Shepherd and Savior stands holding the key to our every question, concern, difficulty, trial, challenge and circumstance which we face.  If He allows us to suffer any trial or tribulation in this life, it is meant to lead us to Him so He can show Himself faithful, good, loving, merciful and kind.  It is in prayer that we experience true fellowship and communion with the Lord and experience His peace, power, protection and provision.  It is the duty of all Christians to pray.  By prayer God has given us the avenue by which we may obtain all that we, and the world, needs.  He is a loving, kind, tender-hearted, benevolent heavenly Father  "who will give good things to those who ask Him" (v.11b).  All that He has for us is a free gift of His love and grace; and all we have to do is ask. He has given us the gift of His Holy Spirit to lead us through the door of heavenly understanding.  If we allow Him, He will be our faithful guide into all truth and lead us into the deep recesses of the Father's heart so we will know how to ask properly and obtain that which we ask for.  This afternoon let us take advantage of the open door before us and put into practice the commitment to earnest, persistent, persevering, overcoming prayer that we may obtain grace for a world utterly dependent upon our prayers!