Ask, Search, Knock

⁷ “Ask,^(A) and it will be given to you.^(B) Seek, and you will find. Knock, and the door^[a] will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds,^(C) and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. ⁹ Who among you, if his son asks him for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you then, who are evil,^(D) know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him.

The Lord’s Prayer

⁹ “Therefore, you should pray like this: ^(A)

⁶ Now without faith it is impossible to please God, since the one who draws near to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.

⁵ Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God—who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly—and it will be given to him.^{(A) 6} But let him ask in faith without doubting.^[a] For the doubter is like the surging sea, driven and tossed by the wind. ⁷ That person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord, ⁸ being double-minded and unstable in all his ways.^[b](B)

Proud or Humble

4 What is the source of wars and fights among you? Don’t they come from your passions^(A) that wage war within you?^{[a] 2} You desire and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and wage war.^[b] You do not have because you do not ask. ³ You ask and don’t receive because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.^(B)

⁴ You adulterous people!^[c] Don’t you know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the friend of the world becomes the enemy of God.^{(C) 5} Or do you think it’s without reason that the Scripture says: The spirit he made to dwell in us envies intensely?^[d](D)

⁶ But he gives greater grace. Therefore he says:

⁷ Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.^{(F) 8} Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.^(G)