September 27, 2013

Doors

A wheelchair bound man, who hadn’t had a date in years, thought his handicap was holding him back from having a girlfriend and developing meaningful relationships. He turned to Dear Abby for help and she directed him to organized agencies and social outlets. After encouraging him in his quest, she ended her advice with, “There is a saying, ‘Seek and ye shall find,’ and it applies to your situation.” (9/26/2013) It’s interesting the Abby would relegate the words of Jesus to simply being a ‘saying’, as though the phrase might well have come out of a fortune cookie, or the mouth of Confucius. For the record Jesus said, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” (Matt 7:7-8 NIV) People often confuse seeking The Door to the Father with doors of opportunity and fulfillment.

1 comment:

Steve Corey said...

Gail;

-----Amazingly, “Seek and you will find,” does apply to opportunity and fulfillment. Of course, you’re completely right, this was not Jesus’ point of His discourse. He was talking about a humble seeking from a mind framed by God‘s truths more than its own desires. He was talking about a search enlisting God’s directive involvement.
-----Yet, the person who gives himself up to the search and continues in it will find. It is the humility involved in the search which leads to the success. The mind is a great problem solver when it is willing to let go of what it discovers to be unlikely however much it may have liked it. If the man in the wheel chair wants a sweetheart he will find a sweetheart by being a sweetheart while going to places where sweethearts are. If he is not humble enough to change himself to meet the requirements of his search, then he really is not searching.
-----“Search and you will find” is not a good thing without, “Ask, and it will be given you…how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him?” When you are listening to the words of an honest man, then let the truth of the words guide you. No one was more honest than Jesus. When He said “…your Father…” He was talking about a real relationship. We false ones have this misimpression that every human is a child of God. That is not Scriptural. Only those who have humbled themselves (that’s what you do to search, humble yourself) to Jesus Christ are adopted as His Father’s sons. So, because you’ve found merely because you’ve searched does not mean you’ve benefited. Napolean, Hitler, Saddam Hussein, Barrack Obama searched for power and found. Many things are in the ability of men to do who know how to create clusters of possibilities for reaping the one which happenstance impregnates. But what is reaped always is of the kind of what was sown. Again, words of an honest man.

Love you all,
Steve Corey