Wesley Corpus

First, all desiring grace are to wait for it through prayer. This is Christ's express direction. In the Sermon on the Mount, after explaining wherein religion consists and describing its main branches, He adds: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened." (Matt. 7:7, 8.) We're plainly directed to ask to receive, to seek to find God's grace, the pearl of great price, and to knock to continue asking and seeking if we'd enter His kingdom. 2. That no doubt might remain, our Lord emphasizes this particularly. He appeals to every man's heart: "What man is there of you, who, if his son ask bread, will give him a stone? Or, if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven...give good things to them that ask him?" (Matt. 7:9-11.) Or, as He expressed it elsewhere, including all good things in one: "How much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask him?" (Luke 11:13.) Note particularly: those directed to ask hadn't yet received the Holy Spirit. Nevertheless, our Lord directs them to use this means, promising it should be effectual; upon asking, they should receive the Holy Spirit from Him whose "mercy is over all his works." 3. The absolute necessity of using this means to receive any gift from God appears further from the remarkable passage preceding these words: "And he said unto them...Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and shall say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves: And he from within shall answer, Trouble me not; I cannot rise and give thee. I say unto you, though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity, he will rise, and give him as many as he needeth. And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you." (Luke 11:5, 7-9.)