My wife and I stayed in an Italian hotel recently where our room door opened with an electronic key card. I inserted the card, heard the click of the lock and pushed, but the door remained solidly closed. I walked back down to the front desk where the clerk encouraged me to put your shoulder into it when you push. Sure enough, the door yielded. Sort of thrilling to bust into your own room.

Jesus encouraged us to pray in a similar way. 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.

Notice that Jesus didn’t say I’ll get exactly what I ask for, or when I might receive any answer. However, if I knock hard enough and long enough, a door opens. What’s behind the door depends on the Lord. I benefit from the knocking itself, then from what I find when the door yields. I can rest in the fact God prepared his answer specifically for me.

Too often I overlook one more amazing gift of prayer. Jesus again said, 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 the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!

If I only ask my Father in heaven, he will grant the power and indwelling of the Holy Spirit. In these insights from Jesus, the Spirit is the best and most important gift I can call for. What’s behind that door? A life infused and directed by the Spirit of God, working from the inside.

Now that’s a door to put your shoulder into.

Luke 11 in reading the Bible in 2023

Photo by Muath Alsaeed