Ask, and It Will Be Given

^7 (A)“Ask, ^(B)and it will be given to you; ^(C)seek, and you will find; ^(D)knock, and it will be opened to you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.

The Parable of the Persistent Widow

18 And he told them a parable to the effect that they ought ^(A)always to pray and not ^(B)lose heart. ² He said, “In a certain city there was a judge who ^(C)neither feared God nor respected man. ³ And there was a widow in that city who kept coming to him and saying, ‘Give me justice against my adversary.’ ⁴ For a while he refused, but afterward he said to himself, ^(D)‘Though I neither fear God nor respect man, ⁵ yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will give her justice, so that she will not beat me down by her continual coming.’” ⁶ And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge says. ⁷ And ^(E)will not God give justice to ^(F)his elect, ^(G)who cry to him day and night? ^(H)(I)Will he delay long over them? ⁸ I tell you, he will give justice to them ^(J)speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, ^(K)will he find faith on earth?”

¹⁴ if my people who are called by my name ^(A)humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

¹⁶ Therefore, ^(A)confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, ^(B)that you may be healed. ^(C)The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.^[a]

¹⁰ Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm^[a] so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.

^2 (A)Bear one another's burdens, and ^(B)so fulfill ^(C)the law of Christ.