Luke 11:9 -- On Praying, Asking, and Learning

"And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you."
Luke 11:9


There is a lot of advice about what to ask for in the scriptures, and of course we need to be in touch with the spirit so that we are asking for blessings the Lord wants to give us rather than "that which is of no worth" (2 Nephi 9:51). The core principle here, though, is that God wants us to ask, which means prayer... and he is serious about that. It takes faith to talk to someone we can't see, and it takes faith to ask for blessings that we don't really know how do obtain on our own, and those two small particles of faith can teach us to have more, as we pray and ask and listen and learn. We start learning what kinds of things to ask for. We start understanding how loving and generous God is, and hopefully we grow more grateful. We start learning how to pray and how to listen and understand a little bit more about God and about ourselves.

It isn't all about acquisition, but we should be on our knees talking to the Lord about our lives every day, thanking him for all that he does for us, but also asking, seeking, and knocking... learning more about how God does things, being bold in asking the Lord to show us things and to help us understand as Nephi did, and as Joseph Smith did. Asking is important both in figuring out what we want, and in getting the answers that we desire. Asking questions that we don't know the answers to is the perfect time to learn, when our hearts and minds are open to knowing what we seek, and softened towards the Lord.

Today, let's do as God advises and ask, seek, and knock--trying to learn all that God has to teach us. We're not always going to get it exactly right, but the process is still important, and the more we pray and ask and seek, the more we will understand and the better we will get at all of it. :)