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Ask, Seek...

             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; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7:7-8)

 For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:4-5)

 

Sunday’s sermon focused in part on the passage from Matthew. It merged with something John Ortberg said recently. He told us that waiting for God does not mean being passive, just waiting around for God to tell us or do for us. We are not to abdicate agency. We are to be active. When my pastor started discussing the passage, my mind kicked in immediately with differing levels of agency. I tended to think that the asking, seeking, and knocking were differing levels of interaction with God. I thought we were to put all our energy into trying to get God’s attention, to get Him to tell us the answer while we sit and wait.

If this newer idea is correct, we’re to ask God. We’re to look around for possible answers or “doors.” When we find them (maybe making a list and checking it twice), we’re to go to one of those doors or answers and knock. If no one answers, we’re to move to the next door and repeat the process. In other words, an active and at least potentially positive attitude is needed.

With that in mind, we turn to the Biblegateway.com passage of the day: Romans 12:4-5. When I read it, I have a similar reaction to the one I notice sometimes in others. I’m the exception. I’m the misfit. I don’t fit in. And there are those who would likely say, “Well, if you weren’t so _______ and list what they find objectionable about me. After all, God is supposed to work in each of us so we’re like Jesus. I just have a lot further to go than they do. If I weren’t so ______, He could do it. The reality is that no one in the Body of Christ has the right to deny anyone else’s place in the Body of Christ.

But when comes to our finding our place or our gifts, chances are good that we’ll have to follow the same “ask, seek, knock” idea - trying our hands at things rather than sitting in the waiting room (pew) for our names and assignments to be called like team picking in elementary school. It’s unlikely that someone will race up to us and tell us that we are the answer to their prayers. Right fit today might be wrong fit tomorrow. And if no doors open, it may be that the door you should be trying is in your family or community rather than within the church building. Or, it might be that you’re supposed to learn something new that can be used in or by the Body.

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