This verse has three texts in it. The first tells us to ask; the second says, seek, and the third, knock.
Very simple, is it not?
Even a little child can understand what it is to ask for anything. If a little boy is hungry, he asks mother for something to eat; indeed, all day long little ones are asking for many things. Well, this verse wants you to ask God for something, perhaps you will find out presently what it is.
Seek, and ye shall find. Ah! who does not know what it is to seek. We are always seeking; from the girl who loses her needle or thimble, to the man who has mislaid some important paper or book, and has to seek for it, perhaps for a long time before he finds it. Yes, this text says we must seek, and we shall find. Have you guessed yet what we are to ask for, and seek?
Lastly, the word is knock, and it shall be opened to you. That must be at a door then, if we knock and it is opened, like father knocks when he comes home at night. Is it difficult to knock? O no, it’s very easy; many little children knock at their mother’s door every day. But what can the text mean by knocking can you tell me?
Here is the whole verse
Ask, and it shall be given you,
Seek, and ye shall find,
Knock, and it shall be opened unto you.
Now do you see that the first letters of the three lines make the word, “Ask?” And that so beautifully links the three together. So, I hear a boy or girl with earnest tones, saying, “O, Lord Jesus, do save me! and make me Thine own”—I should say that boy is asking for salvation, he is seeking salvation, yea, he is knocking at the very door of heaven. The texts mean the same, but are put in three different ways, that all may understand and see their importance. But stay, there are also three promises:—
Shall be given,
Shall find,
Shall be opened.
Is not that encouraging for anyone who wants salvation? O, reader, if you do not yet have it, think of the threefold text, and also of the threefold promise, for when God says Shall, He means it.
Messages of God’s Love 1/9/1921