Ask; Seek; Knock By Cortney Donelson

Photo Cred: Unknown

What do you notice? Ask; Seek; Knock.

Everyone who asks receives. This Bible verse, quoted by Jesus, holds quite a promise, doesn’t it? It doesn’t stand alone though. There are two other verses with it, separated by semi-colons, not periods. The Bible seems to be painting a step-by-step guide to finding what it is we deeply desire and need – God’s will. There isn’t just one step; there are three.

When I ask God to show me the way, to light the path, to open the doors that will lead me down the road of righteousness, I do this through prayer. I talk – sometimes a lot – to God. I want to know what His will for me is and how to live out my God-ordained purpose.

I wasn’t always so insightful. I used to pray for the things I thought would be best. Right after 9/11, I applied to the FBI Academy. I – along with 10,000 of my closest patriots – was ready to make a difference and ensure that horrific day never repeated itself. I prayed for acceptance into the Academy, asking God to fulfill my very noble desire. Surely He would, right? After all, I truly wanted to help people. While I waited, I went to a shooting range with a friend who happened to be a State Trooper and learned to handle a gun. I came home holding a target with 50 holes in the center chest area. My husband was half impressed, half terrified. My outfits started looking more “black suit.” I began running and increasing my strength capacity. Finally, I was able to knock out 75 push-ups in a single set, thinking I was a shoe-in for agent training. 

Then, the letter came. Rejected. No. I had clearly asked … and did not receive. Immediately after 9/11, the Academy had changed its requirements in response to two things. First, the number of applicants multiplied exponentially. There were just a whole lot of livid and hurt people wanting to do something. Second, the FBI was only seeking candidates who could speak Farsi, Kurdish, or Arabic, the languages of the Middle East. Hablo español…un poco! 

I was crushed. Angry with terrorists – and now God! I couldn’t understand why He wouldn’t answer my prayer that was filled with a desire to make a difference in the world. Two years later, we traveled to Russia to bring home our first child, and I knew then and there, I had not prayed, “Lord, Your will be done” but had prayed, “Lord, make my will be done.” You know what else I didn’t do? Seek. 

As we pray for God’s will, the second (and deeply connected) step is to seek. If we just sit back and pray but we don’t seek, we will get His answer, but we won’t know where to find it or what to do with it. I like to think about this is by envisioning one of those fun houses with a hundred mirrors inside that make it look like there are a hundred different exit doors. We can stand in the middle of the room and pray. We can ask God about His door. And, He will answer. He'll reveal what the sign over the door says and how the door looks. However, unless we seek it out from all the other doors – the distractor doors – we aren’t going to find it. Knowing God's will is the proverbial "half the battle."

I knew God’s will for me was to write more. I knew I needed to spend more time in deep reflection and intimacy with Him. When I prayed about my purpose, ministry was the answer. However, there were other doors, too. Doors that looked just as inviting and, quite honestly, safer and more secure than the one God was describing. There was the door labeled Physical Therapy. There was the door labeled Human Resources. There was the door labeled Haiti. Heck, there was the door labeled Chai Tea Latte Connoisseur! There were dozens of other doors. I knew I had to seek out the door labeled God’s Will for Me Right Now. 

Scripture is true! He who seeks finds. But, this is where I think so many of us freeze. We ask, and we receive. We seek, and we find. But, we are too wrapped up in comfortable, cozy, safe, and happy to actually knock on that door labeled God’s Will for Me! Intuitively, I believe we all know that when we knock, God is surely going to open it. So, we don’t knock. We pat ourselves on the back because we found it, and we stand there doing nothing more than smiling. We’re afraid of what He’ll ask us to leave behind if we go through the door. We’re unsure of the unknown, and that’s scary. Right? So, we just stand there staring at the door, sometimes for years. Sometimes for our entire lives. 

Ask; Seek; Knock. Once we start, we must finish it. Remember, Jesus’s words were not separated by periods. We can’t “tap out” at any point of this process and think we’re all set, or that how far we’ve gone is close enough. We can't put periods where there are semi-colons. Let's say yes to that last step. Let's knock. Let's not settle for safe and happy! Let's allow God to open that door to something better - the abundant life. 

I’ve learned I’m not as wise as I had thought or hoped. I’ve learned God’s will for me always turn outs better than what I had planned or the life I thought was pretty good. Spending time in prayer and seeking out the details, ignoring (or closing) all the distractor doors, and stepping through the ones He opens when I knock have proven to be the best decisions of my life. 

If you’re standing in front of that door now, knock. Don’t spend all that time asking and seeking to never truly live out your purpose because you never knocked, received His greeting, and walked through to the other side. He loves you so much; He will open the door to the best things for you. 

“If your child asks for bread, do you trick him with sawdust? If he asks for fish, do you scare him with a live snake on his plate? As bad as you are, you wouldn’t think of such a thing. You’re at least decent to your own children. So don’t you think the God who conceived you in love will be even better?” (Matthew 7:7-12, The Message)

Prayer: Father God, thank You for the semi-colons. Thank You for clear instructions on how to find Your will for us. I pray that we don’t stop with just the asking (knowledge), or the seeking (acting and preparing to open the door), but we also knock. For, that is where our trust in Your character and love for us is evident. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. 

Influenced by my prayer life, Matthew 7:7-12, John 16:13, Hebrews 10:36, “Hearing God,” by Dallas Willard, “If” by Mark Batterson, and “The Prayer of Jabez,” by Bruce Wilkinson. 

©2012-2016 As a Clay Jar. All rights reserved.

My book, "Clay Jar Cracked," is available on Lulu.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retail sites, and including print, e-pub, nook, and kindle versions. To schedule speaking engagements, please email Cortney. 

Parable By Cortney Donelson

Photo Cred: Unknown

The Son of God was a storyteller. He taught with parables.

When a recent quiet time took me to the parable about the lamp on the stand, I made a connection that I had never made before. 

Could we be today’s version of these powerful short stories shared by Christ to teach truth? Should we be sharing our stories just as Jesus shared His stories [parables] in order to help draw people down the path of righteousness? 

Most people I know want to make a difference. Most people want to be significant. No one wants to leave this world as if they had never been here – forgotten or just simply idle. It’s one of my greatest fears. I don’t believe this stems from pride but from the way God has designed me with a divine purpose that only I can fill. Even those who struggle greatly with the idea that their lives are worth living, struggle because they want to be someone to someone else. 

I firmly believe God created each of us with a unique purpose. In fact, I’d go to many lengths to argue that concept. Ephesians 2:10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.” A workmanship as described in this Scripture as someone made with a high level of skill, artistry, and purpose. 

When that inner voice tells me, “You were made for more,” I feel compelled to believe it! Not only that, but we are already equipped to be significant. We are already prepared to be someone to someone else. How?

We are all walking parables. 

We are teachers and storytellers, and the parables we are teaching and sharing are ones that only we can tell. We all have unique stories, ones that point to God’s redemption, grace, love, strength, or wisdom. And, only we are the experts of our own stories. There are currently over seven billion people in the world. However, only we have our particular story. Only we can teach about what we’ve done, what we’ve learned, what God did, how He showed up, and how we responded. Our stories are told through our unique lenses and personalities. There are no other authors that can write our stories the way we can. No other teachers who can teach through our experiences. That’s at least seven billion stories walking around this place. Seven billion parables that can point someone else to the God who redeems and loves us. 

When Jesus – our model Teacher – spread the Good News, He used short stories to highlight and clarify a particular moral truth or spiritual lesson. The parables often included the evidence of the ongoing battle between good and evil. The stories outlined how we should respond in situations and how we should think and act to glorify God. He also used parables to hide the meaning of His lessons from those whose hearts were hardened. 

Take the parable of the Lamp on the Stand. It’s recorded in Luke 8:16-18.

“No one lights a lamp and hides it in a jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, he puts it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light. For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open. Therefore consider carefully how you listen. Whoever has will be given more; whoever does not have, even what he thinks he has will be taken from him.” 

What happens if we live out God’s love for others and our verbal testimony of faith matches our behaviors and actions? Our lamps brightly shine, our lives can be open books, and we become filled by the Holy Spirit. If we don’t live by God’s Word, our lamps become hidden (an intentional decision, by the way), our lives become shallow, and we start squirreling away our secrets. We lose authenticity; the Spirit within us is effectively squashed.

The lesson Jesus is teaching is not to focus on how much God has given us to this point – it is what we do with what God has given! My question to you now is one I have continually asked myself—What are you doing with what God has given you? 

What God has given us all is grace, mercy, love, and the experiences that point to these gifts. You’re a parable. I’m a parable too. 

2 Corinthians 4:6 teaches, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God’s glory displayed in the face of Christ.”

We are all like jars of clay, with cracks (experiences).

We all have redemption stories stemming from those cracks (lamps on stands). 

We all have light shining forth that proclaim not the lamp itself, but the Light (Jesus). 

We can all share our lamps, allow Light to penetrate the dark, and glorify God. 

Jesus used parables to speak through darkness and alight wisdom in our hearts. Our life journeys are filled with short stories that pit good versus evil. They are filled with stories of God’s love and redeeming grace. Our mistakes are not wasted. Our sins are not unique. We are the present-day parables that could – should – change someone else’s life. 

Embrace your story. Share it. Find joy in your journey. None of us is perfect. But, isn’t that the point? You are making a difference. You are a game-changer. What’s your lesson? What truth do you have to teach?  What aspect of His Light can you put on the stand for others to see? 

I would love to hear about it. More importantly, someone else needs to hear about it. 

Prayer: Father God, thank You for our cracks, our stories, and the ability to shine with Your goodness, despite the darkness. I pray we all keep that lamp on the stand, and don’t hide it away, lest we burn down our souls. We are all teachers of our own life lessons, and I know it would honor You for us to be walking parables for others’ blessings. In Jesus’ name, I pray. Amen. 

Influenced by my prayer life, my life verse (2 Corinthians 4), the Bible verses referenced above, Merriam-Webster, icuTalks (non-profit organization that allows people to share their stories publicly) and the struggles within my community. 

©2016 As a Clay Jar. All rights reserved.

My book, "Clay Jar Cracked," is available on Lulu.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and other retail sites, and including print, e-pub, nook, and kindle versions. To schedule speaking engagements, please email Cortney.