The Sermon on the Mount (Bossuet)/Day 40
Fortieth Day
Perseverance and humility in prayer. — Matt. vii. 7, 8; Luke xi. 5, 6, seq.
'KNOCK’: — persevere in knocking, even to the extent of making yourself troublesome, if that were possible. There is a way of forcing God, and of wresting graces from His hand; and this way is to go on asking without intermission, but with firm faith; which is made clear by the Gospel assurance: ‘ Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.’ And the same promise is repeated in a varying form: — ‘For everyone that asketh, receiveth; and he that seeketh, findeth; and to him that knocketh, it shall be opened.' We must pray, then, by day and night — and when we wake in the night; and though God may seem not to listen, or even to repel us, we must keep on ‘ knocking ': — expecting everything from Him, and yet acting ourselves. For God will not have us only ask, as if He were to do everything quite alone: — we are also to ' seek 9 with our own energy, and to use our will together with His grace; for everything depends on this correspondence. But we must never forget that it is always God Who goes first; for this is the very foundation of humility.