“For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”
For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. The universal scope — everyone who asks, the one who seeks, to the one who knocks — communicates that the responsive Father is not selective in his responsiveness. The pattern of petition, seeking, and knocking is the pattern of persistent, genuine, kingdom-oriented prayer, and this pattern reliably produces the outcomes the Father has promised. The certainty of the outcome is grounded in the character of the Father (verses 9–11), not in the persistence of the petitioner alone. 1 John 5:14 says we have confidence before God that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us.
Church Fathers on Matthew 7:8
Having before forbidden us to pray for things of the flesh, He now shews what we ought to ask, saying, 'Ask, and it shall be given you.'
Otherwise; when He commanded not to give the holy thing to dogs, and not to cast pearls before swine, the hearer conscious of his own ignorance might say, Why do you thus bid me not give the holy thing to dogs, when as yet I see not that I have any holy thing
Otherwise; Having given them some commands for the sanctification of prayer, saying, 'Judge not,' He adds accordingly, 'Ask, and it shall be given unto you,' as though He were to say, If ye observe this mercy towards your enemies, whatever seems to your shut, 'knock, and it shall be opened to you.'
Read all 13 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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