“So I say to you, ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.” (Luke 11:9)

There is a persistence to God’s Kingdom.

On the one hand, we see how God is consistently seeking after us. The Creator asks us to become remade again. Christ searches for us from the heights of the mountains to the depths of Sheol. The Holy Spirit knocks on the doors of our hearts and begs us to become who we are meant to be. This is true for us as individuals and as a community.

For as the Triune God is doing these things among the faithful, that same God is in the world stirring a ferment that will transform everything. It will flip the world upside down. And as one of my colleagues reminded me of the quote a couple of weeks ago: that change will “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.”

There is a persistence to God’s Kingdom. It does not stop. It does not wait. It does not sit idly by while we are making our own decisions.

But our participation in it requires the same persistence on our part.

God may be nearby waiting for us to willingly enter the fray, but once we accept (even if we have to do so every single day anew), we are invited into that same fervor. God’s Kingdom work will take root in our soul. It will very likely turn everything we’ve ever known upside down.

Because becoming those who ask for the work, search for the opportunities, and knock on the difficult doors – it makes us something different than the world tells us to be. Our lives, our prayers begin to more clearly mirror God’s own purpose. The world will not be comfortable with that. And that is okay.

For in asking, searching, knocking – in seeking God’s Kingdom, we will be living as we were intended to. Living into our creation in the image of the Triune God. The beauty of that work will come when we see that same image come alive with the excitement of the Kingdom in others. Just imagine what the world will look like when we all find that same persistence alive in us…

So, as you say your daily prayers and seek to live as Christ’s followers, be persistent in your A.sk S.eek K.nock. You will find that the Kingdom is all around you.

Blessings,     Janie