And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day. Genesis 1:31 ESV (emphasis added)
I love spending time in nature– walking, riding, or biking through woods and meadows, hills and valleys, along lakes or rivers. God has created such beauty and majesty in every part of our world! I grew up surrounded by woods and water– lakes, rivers, old forests and new-growth woods, with lots of farmland and meadows spread out over low rolling hills. So it is always with wonder that I look upon mountains, deserts, rain forests and jungles, and tropical settings because they are not part of the “normal” landscape for me. Even so, I never tire of the sites that greet me year-round–the steady breaking waves rolling in off Lake Michigan; the babbling of a small river or stream over field stone as it races down a small hill toward a pond; trees bowing and dancing in the wind just before a storm, or snow sparking across the frozen fields…
Nature is not just beautiful. It gives us yet another way to experience God’s “nature”– his character and provision. God is steady like a rock– strong, enduring, a safe refuge. God is refreshing and life-giving as a river– ready to wash away aches and soothe us. God is eternal, and his love is as vast and deep as the ocean. God is mysterious as the forest–giving shade and cover, and concealing treasures, and ancient secrets. God is faithful and steady as the sunrise and sunset and the pattern of the seasons. God is as open as a meadow, as pure as an ice shelf, as glorious as a desert sunset.
My husband and I recently returned from a vacation in which we drove through mountains and valleys, traced rivers and streams, and watched the rain falling gently on thirsty fields and meadows. We saw crags of ancient rock, watched happy cows resting in the shade of a copse of trees, saw herons at the edge of a small lake, and dipped our toes in a natural warm spring. We saw geese flying south for the winter, and squirrels chattering as they gathered nuts. It was beautiful, and it all spoke of a God who created variety and complexity, who cares for the land, the flowers of the field, and the birds of the air, and who calls to us through the beauty and grandeur of ordinary days in His Nature.
I pray that we can experience both aspects of God’s nature today–His Sovereignty and His Creation–and praise Him for who He is and how He has revealed Himself all around us.
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.
9 “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone?10 Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?11 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!12 So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
I have heard many sermons using this passage, and the sermons always focus on our (active) end of the directive–Ask! Seek! Knock! But what does this passage say about God?
God is omnipresent, and He has revealed Himself in creation, and through the lives of His people. But God is also reserved– He does not give us all the answers; He doesn’t spoil us by catering to our every wish; He keeps certain things behind closed doors.
“Knock, and the door will opened to you.” There is no mention of a key or key card, a pass code, or any need for ID– just knock. God will open the door. I imagine thousands of (figurative) doors in my life– opportunities, blessings, challenges, relationships– each beckoning. But the doors cannot be opened from the outside. I can strain and push, yell and shake my fist at the closed door in front of me, kick at it, even try to break it down. But if I knock, the door will be opened.
This doesn’t mean that I have no choices or free will as I go along. I can find other hallways, roadways, even freeways on which to travel. And there are opportunities along those paths and roads that are not waiting behind a door. But just like the questions we need to ask, and the quests for which we seek, the closed doors cause us to make a choice– will we knock or walk on? Will we try to open the door in our own power, or knock and let God open the door from His side?
Ask, seek, knock– God desires that we take steps toward Him. He will not walk away, or reject those who sincerely desire His presence. He will not give us “bad” gifts– though He allows us to walk through “the valley of the shadow of death”, He will not leave us there with no comfort or hope. He will not “lock us out” of His goodness or His Grace. In fact, HE stands at the door and knocks– waiting for US to open the door, as well.
Someone may say– “I turned away from the door, walked down my own path, and now I’m trapped behind a wall of doubt and guilt and bad choices. There are no doors left for me”. Jesus stands ready to change all that. There are no walls or dungeons He cannot enter– He will make a door, if that’s what it takes– just ask! You may have to climb over some of the debris, but He will pull you up and over any obstacle you can imagine.
Someone else may say, “I have prayed and prayed, and God hasn’t opened the door for me…” I don’t have an “easy” answer for you, and I don’t want to give a canned response– God isn’t a “one size fits all” God– His ways are good, but they are not always comprehensible. I can only give an example from my own life. I prayed for years that God would “open the door” for me to be married and have children. I met several wonderful men, some godly, others just really nice guys who don’t follow Jesus. I could have fallen into, or schemed my way into a marriage or sexual relationship with one of them– I could have tried to get pregnant for years before I found out I was barren. I might have made a marriage work, might have adopted children, might have…But I kept knocking on THE door– the one that God set before my heart and soul– the door that called me to enter and be close to Him– to do it His way or not at all. For over 25 years I knocked– sometimes faintly and with fear that the door would stay closed– sometimes with a sort of desperation. And one day, the door opened– God’s door, God’s way. I have no doubts or regrets about knocking at that door, or waiting for it to be opened from God’s side. I had imagined what was on the other side of that door–what I have received is perfectly sufficient, even as it is totally different from what I imagined. I never had children of my own– but as I waited for God’s timing, He led me to work with hundreds of children who blessed my life beyond description. And in waiting, He led me to opportunities I would never have had if the door had opened in MY timing. All I can say is this– God led me to desire something worthy and good and to His Glory. I believed it was marriage and family–but even if I were still unmarried today, I would not stop praying; not stop knocking; not stop trusting in God’s goodness and His wisdom for my life.
Another may say, “I knocked on a door, and God opened it, but it only brought me pain and misery.” Once again, I don’t have a quick or easy answer for you, and there is no answer that will magically take away pain and misery. I don’t want to invalidate or deny your experience, and I don’t want to claim that I know why God has allowed you to go through such an experience. I would only challenge you to be like Jacob, who wrestled with God and would not let go until he got a blessing. I don’t know why God withholds some answers and allows pain that seems needless and senseless. And even though I know of many instances where God has brought resolution and healing out of tragedy, I also know that it doesn’t erase all the tears and questions. My own experience brought years of depression, bitterness, and isolation even as it brought incredible growth and opportunity– I still have memories that bring tears and painful thoughts–but I know that healing is possible, and I still believe that God is “good”– I believe that God is with us even in our pain and sorrow. I believe that Jesus suffered greatly, not only on the cross, but throughout His earthly life– He faced rejection, betrayal, frustration, misunderstanding, hatred, bigotry, injustice, loneliness, homelessness, poverty, hunger, and more. Pain is intense, but it is not eternal. Evil is real and it is miserable, but it is not victorious.
Keep knocking. Your door may seem like the ultimate barrier, but God wants to open it for you.
Pursuing Prayer 