APRIL 21 THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 7) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34)

 APRIL 21  THE JESUS QUESTIONS (Day 7) Summary Review of JESUS Questions JQ#01-01—JQ#13-07 (Matthew 5:1 thru Matthew 12:34) 

LIVING FOR JESUS  Daily Prayer   

JESUS, Praise You Lord just for the simple fact that You are there every day so that we can awake to a new day that You have provided for us. Lord, we don’t stop to think about the fact that You are there listening to our prayers when we go to sleep, You are there to comfort us when we awake in the night and cannot sleep, and then when we awake in the morning You are right there to greet us with the best of “Good Mornings” !!! We never stop to consider that You never sleep but are always right by our side!! Regardless of our need, You are there to hold our hand, dry our tears, or simply nod Your head in calm reassurance that everything will be alright for You have taken care of everything, just like You promised! Lord Jesus, may I never lose sight of the Divine Truth that You never lose sight of me!       AMEN

THE JESUS QUESTIONS

Jesus Teaches us by introducing a “precept” and reveals a “Truth of God” from that “precept” and then Jesus asks us one of His “Introspective” Questions which in order to honestly answer His Question we must look inside ourselves and dig out our core beliefs and then challenge those core beliefs with this new “precept” and “Truth of God”.

Lesson 5  JQ#5    “Why should you Ask-Seek-Knock?”                Matthew 7:7-14

It is only by this sequence of “Precept” followed by “Truth of God” then applying them to our core beliefs “Introspectively” that we come to understand that God wants only good for us. The simple fact that God wants “Good” for us goes against the “Every-man-for-himself” secular philosophy that our society believes we have to accept. Just by making the statement: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7) Jesus introduces a concept foreign to our “dog-eat-dog” modern lifestyle. When Jesus then ties the “precept of Ask-Seek-Knock” to the “Truth of God” that “…everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened…” (Matthew 7:8) we gain an insight to God that we had not formerly considered, and that is that God Himself is making us a personal promise that if we follow His directions (Ask-Seek-Knock) that He promises us success! The “Truth of God” found in this Lesson is that to “guarantee our success” all we need to do is “follow God’s directions”! There are no strings attached and nothing for us to sacrifice to gain success except that we must learn to “Trust God” and “lean not on our own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5). Jesus gets us thinking about changing our internal values and core beliefs and that’s when He drives the point home to our souls with “Introspective Questions” like: (1) “Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?” (Matthew 7:9)  (2) “Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?” (Matthew 7:10) and concludes with (3) “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:11) It is a win-win when you learn to give up your foolish pride and accept directions from the God of All Things and Who refers to Himself as our “Father in heaven” and promises to “give good things” to His [sons and daughters] that Trust Him enough to “ask” Him”!  Don’t you think that giving up your stubborn will to “do-it-myself” is a small price to pay for such Divine success, after all, if the God-that-Can-Do-All-Things can’t keep His Promise, what chance of success do you think you have in putting your “hope” in sinful man, or even worse, in your sinful self???