Pastor's Blog

Sand Mountain Sermonette 11

Matthew 7:7-8

The Chewing Gum in the Glass Case

The best 21-shrimp fried dinner I have ever eaten was in the “King’s Inn Restaurant” off Highway 431 North as you enter Albertville, Alabama. The restaurant has long been closed, but I can still imagine sitting down at the counter and watching the cook create my all-time favorite!

The other memory I hold dear to that restaurant was the evening my family and I had finished our meal and I found myself peering into the all familiar glass case of goodies that was positioned below the cash register as dad was paying our bill. I had fixed my eyes on the popular national brand of chewing gum that was known for its two flavors that were marked by either white or green wrappers. Being the elementary school boy that I was, I pointed in the general direction of the white-wrapper package but invited Gurley, the tall lanky man who worked the register, to give me a pack of gum stating only the name of the company, not the color of the wrapping I wanted. Old Gurley met my request by giving me something I hadn’t asked for; he proceeded to hand me a package of the chewing gum marked by the green wrapper. I told Gurley I had wanted “the white gum” to which he responded, “Now Louie, what did you say?” After that, I realized I should have specified which color I originally had in mind. Well, Gurley made it right by exchanging packages of gum with me, but I also learned a valuable spiritual lesson: The clarity of praying in God’s will is the key to asking and receiving!

In His Sermon on the Mount, Jesus spoke these words, “Ask, and it will be given to you, seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened,” (Matthew 7:7-8). Here, as one portrays, Jesus is introducing His followers to three levels of prayer: (1) When we know God’s will in a matter, we ask (The Level of Presenting a Petition). (2) If we do not know God’s will in a matter, we seek (The Level of Pressing a Petition). (3) If we know God’s will, but the answer has not come, we knock until the door opens (The Level of Persisting with a Petition). The original language of Matthew 7:7 means we are to keep on asking, keep on seeking, and keep on knocking! Do not give up! God wants you to know His will. Pray God’s word and trust Him!

Pastor Louie