Help Yourself: Ask, Seek, and Knock

Summary

A visiting preacher, brother Vladimir, opens with a simple but pointed lesson he calls "help yourself." Drawing on the words of Jesus in Matthew 7:7 - ask and it will be given, seek and you will find, knock and it will be opened - he reminds the church that God is ready and willing to act, but waits for us to bring our need to Him. He tells of a stranded driver with a dead battery who sat helpless until he raised the hood of his car; the moment he signaled his trouble, help arrived. So it is with us: heaven does not wait for us to suffer in silence. Whether the burden is financial, spiritual, or in the family, we are to lift the hood and ask.

He points to two women in Scripture who refused to give up - the one who had spent everything on doctors and only grew worse, yet pressed through to touch Jesus and was healed, and the one who begged for even the crumbs under the table for her daughter. Both had a goal, ignored what others said, and pushed through to Christ. The preacher urges believers to take God's own word into their mouths and pray, "Lord, by Your word I ask You, help me," trusting the promise that He will never leave us nor forsake us.

The service then continues the church's study of the letter of James, chapter three. The teacher warns that few should become teachers, for those who teach answer to God for every word and must speak only as Scripture speaks. From there he opens the great theme of the tongue: small as a horse's bit or a ship's rudder, yet it sets the direction of the whole of life. Death and life are in its power. With the same mouth we bless God and curse people made in His image, and this should not be. A changed heart produces changed speech, the first sign that a person has truly been born again.

Key Points

• God is ready to help, but He waits for us to bring our need to Him, so raise the hood and ask.
• The promise of Jesus stands: ask and it is given, seek and you will find, knock and the door opens.
• Real faith presses through obstacles and the opinions of others to reach Christ.
• Take God's own word into your mouth as you pray, and hold Him to His promises.
• Teaching carries weighty responsibility; teachers must speak exactly as Scripture speaks.
• The tongue is small, yet it steers the whole course of life, for death and life are in its power.
• Transformed speech is the first evidence of a heart made new by Christ.