Ask, Seek, Knock

By Robb Brunansky

Published November 18, 2025

Prayer is one of the greatest mysteries of our faith, because it revolves around the biblical doctrine of the sovereignty of God.

Scripture unashamedly proclaims God’s sovereignty. Nothing can thwart the Lord’s purposes, and no one has any wisdom, knowledge, or input He needs or receives. His purposes are so beyond our understanding and comprehension, that, like Job, when we consider His sovereignty and majesty, we repent even of our questions.

All these truths make prayer a great mystery. If God’s purpose and decree has existed from all eternity, what is the point of prayer? Jesus said our Father in heaven knows our needs before we ask Him, so why ask if He has promised to care for and meet our needs?

One way people answer these questions is to minimize or reject God’s sovereignty. This approach turns the Lord into the responder, rather than the initiator, making His purposes and plans contingent on our prayers. The problem with this approach is that Scripture shows God’s purpose as unchangeable (Hebrews 6). God reigns and is sovereign, and He will accomplish His will and purposes – and those will stand.

Another approach to resolving this tension is to avoid explanation and simply state that we ought to pray because God commands it. There is a sense in which this truth is correct. If God commands us to do something, we should do it, both for our good and His glory. However, if we pray merely out of obedience, we may find our prayer lives dutiful but dull, submissive but sickly, and faithful but feeble. We must pray to be obedient, but we should have a greater understanding of prayer if we would mature spiritually.

Prayer, not only should be offered out of obedience, but a desire to acquire something from God we would not otherwise obtain apart from it. The Lord’s promises are only received through prayer (James 4:2).

Considering prayer this way is difficult for many who understand God’s sovereignty, which can impede us because we do not rightly understand the Lord’s sovereignty and prayer. God, in His sovereignty, has ordained that we obtain His promises only by prayer. Thus, we are not denying His sovereignty but expressing how it works itself out. In this passage in Luke, Christ encourages us to pray with this truth in view because we often fail in our prayer lives due, in part, to a lopsided understanding of God’s sovereignty and prayer. Much of our failure in prayer (or even to pray) is due to a lack of confidence in the Lord’s willingness to answer prayer, because we think He already has everything worked out.

If we are to be effective in prayer, we must pray with confidence in God’s willingness to answer our requests. There are three truths explaining why we should be confident in God’s willingness to hear and answer prayer.

First, we can pray with confidence because of God’s promise (Luke 11:9-10).

God’s promise is not only what we seek to obtain, but the foundation of our confidence in prayer. This ground places our confidence in prayer outside of ourselves. When we see our own weakness, frailties, and sinfulness, we come to God with confidence still because our confidence in prayer arises from His promise, not our fitness to receive His blessings. If we have confidence in Christ’s blood, we must have the same confidence in God’s willingness to answer our prayers, because His willingness is founded upon His blood.

Jesus states the promise in general terms, using three metaphors commonly used of prayer: ask, seek, knock. The idea of asking is like the parable of the friend going to his neighbor at midnight for help. Here, God beckons us to ask Him for what we need. It is here where we should be careful of failure, because how often we simply fail to ask. We must humble ourselves before God and ask for help, and we should be willing to accept His solution.

Not only, though, does Jesus tell us to ask God to give what He has promised, but He also commands us to seek. Seeking implies a willingness to search for God and expend effort. This command doesn’t imply God is lost and waiting for us to find Him; rather, it is a statement about our weakness, that we don’t know where God is or what His will is, or where He would lead us, so we must seek Him. The seeking is for our benefit.

Then, we are commanded to knock. When we don’t knock on people’s doors, they don’t answer – one hundred percent of the time, which is Jesus’ point.

God’s will is clear. He wants us to come to Him, ask Him, search for His face, and knock until we obtain His promise. These commands are meant to be continuous actions, not one-time events

This promise applies to everyone! No matter who we are, if we come to God to obtain His promises, we will receive them. He will not fail, ignore, or reject us. How we must have confidence in God’s willingness to answer our prayers, because He has promised to do so.

Second, we can pray with confidence because of God’s goodness (Luke 11:11-13).

Jesus gives an analogy here with another focus on material provisions, tying this argument to the third petition of the Lord’s Prayer, which keeps the thought unified throughout this passage. Christ’s point is that even with all our sins and shortcomings as fathers, we still try to do what is best for our children. If that is true about most fathers, how much better will a perfect Father – the heavenly Father – take care of His children? If we, who are not inherently good, do good to our children, what is our heavenly Father like who is inherently good?

Scripture teaches us God wants to give us good things, fulfill His promises, and shower us with His love, grace, mercy, power, and might. We, as the Lord’s children, never need to fear that when we come to Him in prayer, He will respond by harming us. This truth doesn’t mean we will always see what He is doing in the short term, but we will recognize through faith He is good and loving – and we have confidence in Him because of His goodness. We should never be afraid to pray for fear that God is capricious, that He is out to get us, or that He will make a mockery of our requests.

Third, we can pray with confidence because of God’s giving (Luke 11:13).

We give good gifts to our children even with our sin, and God will do even more: He will give His Spirit to those who ask Him. We ask God for the gifts, but He gives us the Giver. Jesus wants us to see God’s giving in response to our prayers according to His will is so lavish, abundant, powerful, and generous, that it cannot be contained within any finite gift or described as anything less than the Lord imparting Himself to us in the third person of the Trinity. How confident we should be in our God! How certain we should be that He is willing to answer our prayers! He gives like no other!

Then, again, the key is that we must ask, seek, and knock. The great theologian and pastor J.C. Ryle wrote, “Let us resolve by God’s grace, that however poor and feeble our prayers may seem to be, we will pray on.” We should not allow the evil one to discourage us or give in to the laziness of the flesh. If we would obtain God’s promises, we must pray on until we have obtained them. Ask, and keep asking. Seek, and keep seeking. Knock and keep knocking.