Question: I have been pondering the meaning of Mathew 7:7-8: “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
I believe it has a deeper meaning than appears at face value. I have tried to look up the Hebrew interpretation, but I’m not finding much. There have been many times I have “asked” with very pure intentions, even including fasting and prayer, and the heavens seemed silent. I often am not asking for “things.” I am asking for understanding and knowledge, even about this scripture. I have been praying for quite a while, trying to understand. But I don’t feel like I’m “receiving” or “finding.” Clearly, I don’t understand the appropriate interpretation of the scripture, and I can’t teach my children what I don’t clearly understand.
Answer: Several things are worth considering when keeping Jesus’ commandment to ask and receive, knock and have opened, etc. First, when John quotes Jesus’ invitation to ask and receive, he adds an important caveat—keeping Jesus’ commandments: “Whatsoever you shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it. If you love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:13–15).
Second, like Nephi the son of Helaman—a translated being—who had learned the art of not asking for “that which is contrary to my will” (Helaman 10:5), we must be in tune with the Holy Spirit sufficiently to know whether something we ask for is God’s will or not. In that case, we would “ask not, that ye may consume it on your lusts, but ask with a firmness unshaken, that ye will yield to no temptation, but that ye will serve the true and living God” (Mormon 9:28).
Third, we can’t isolate asking without knowing the context in which God’s promises of receiving appear. For example, we are to (1) watch and pray always lest we enter into temptation (3 Nephi 18:18); (2) seek Jesus diligently and draw near to him (Doctrine & Covenants 88:63); (3) bring forth good fruit of the lasting kind (John 15:16); (4) be willing to suffer persecution for Jesus’ sake (John 15:20); (5) ask in faith, believing we will receive (3 Nephi 18:20). And so forth.
The brother of Jared was “a man highly favored of the Lord”—not by accident but precisely because he called upon the name of the Lord on behalf of kindreds and associates (Ether 1:34; 2:14–15). He was willing to bear their burdens and suffer on their behalf in the manner of a proxy savior. Many of those whom Jesus invited to ask and receive, he called his “friends,” no longer his “servants,” knowing they would do “whatsoever I command you” (John 15:14–16).
