For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.
Parallel translations
- WEB For everyone who asks receives. He who seeks finds. To him who knocks it will be opened.
- KJV For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
- BSB For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.
- NKJV For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
- NASB For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Everyone who asks receives, who seeks finds, and who knocks finds an open door. God reliably responds to those who come to him in faith.
Overview
Jesus reinforces the previous invitation by stating it as a settled principle: prayer directed to the Father does not go unanswered. The promise assures disciples of God's eager responsiveness, understood within Scripture as God giving what is truly good and in keeping with his will. It anchors confident prayer in the trustworthy generosity of God.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Ps 81:10I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
- Ps 81:16But he would have also fed them with the finest of the wheat. I will satisfy you with honey out of the rock.”
- Luke 23:42–43He said to Jesus, “Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom.”
- Matt 15:22–28Behold, a Canaanite woman came out from those borders, and cried, saying, “Have mercy on me, Lord, you son of David! My daughter is severely possessed by a demon!”
- Acts 9:11The Lord said to him, “Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judah for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus. For behold, he is praying,
- 2 Chr 33:19His prayer also, and how God was entreated of him, and all his sin and his trespass, and the places in which he built high places, and set up the Asherah poles and the engraved images, before he humbled himself: behold, they are written in the history of Hozai.
- John 3:8–10The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but don’t know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.”
- John 2:2Jesus also was invited, with his disciples, to the marriage.
- 2 Chr 33:1–2Manasseh was twelve years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-five years in Jerusalem.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
Resources, by level
Commentaries & study tools
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
Sermons and teaching on this passage from across YouTube.
Clear, readable, conservative exposition — the best free place to start on any passage.
Matthew Henry, Barnes, Gill, the Pulpit Commentary, Ellicott, Cambridge, and more — stacked on one page for this exact verse.
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
Hebrew/Greek interlinear, word definitions, and cross-references for this verse.
Christ at the center
Matthew presents Jesus as the promised King — son of David, son of Abraham — the new Moses and true Israel in whom every prophecy reaches 'that it might be fulfilled.'
How Matthew 7:8 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.