Matthew 7:8

Ver. 7,8. Here is a precept expressed by three words, ask, seek, knock; and a promise annexed in three distinct terms, it shall be given you, ye shall find, it shall be opened unto you. The thing commanded is prayer; the thing promised is an audience of prayer, or an answer to prayer. The multiplying of the terms in which the precept is expressed is not idle and superfluous, it lets us know our averseness to the duty, and that God in it requireth of us faith, diligence, constancy, and importunity. Christ had before told us of whom we should ask, our Father; it is not said what we should ask, both in regard we have a liberty to ask any thing we have need of, and he had, Matthew 6:8, particularly directed the matter of our prayers. The promise, that we shall have, signifies an answer, either in kind or in value; the promise of giving lets us know that our prayers are not meritorious. For every one that asketh the things he needeth, and in faith, according to the will of God, and for a right end, receiveth, & c. See James 4:3.