September 28, 2004 - 273/94

Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.
Isaiah 55:6


One thing we all share in common is the tendency to take things for granted. Isaiah knew it and urged God people to seek God. Seeking God is like a window of opportunity afforded us. We often speak of seeking God in terms of frequency in praying, but it's much more than that. Isaiah was speaking about how one prays more than the amount one prays.

Most view seeking God as approaching God in prayer, but what is our attitude when we pray, what is our request and on what basis do we believe God will hear us and when He does, what answer do we expect? Through Prayertower I've tried to teach you how to pray with specificity and expectancy. While seeking God is an attitude that is learned, it is a hard thing to teach for how can you motivate someone to do something they have no desire to do?

Seeking God should be the first baby step we ever take as a new Christian, but sadly we usually fail to learn it and then suffer for having done so. Seeking God is knowing where to turn for the answer you need, asking for help, pursuing an answer with all the vigor within you and then waiting on the answer. If you seldom seek God, then it's likely you seldom pray. Listen, you can pray every minute of the day, but unless you seek God your effort is just that - an effort.

Almost nightly on the television news, we see missiles used against places where terrorists are hiding. On the ground and at sea, our armed forces uses a technology known as laser-guidance to find and take out a target with precision. Someone advances on the ground to physically see the target and then points a laser at it. Then a missile is launched that hits where the laser is pointed. From this example, we learn a lot about prayer and how to seek God.

Prayer without a heart for seeking God is like repeating words or chanting phrases. But the person who knows God's heart, seeks to target the things God wants done. In the Garden, Jesus prayed "Not my will but yours!" In the same way we should know how to pray and never pray contrary to God's desire. Then we should point our eyes on the target like a laser and wait for God to deliver the answer while we wait to verify the fact the target's been hit.

May we become like those on the ground facilitating the targeting for warships. We are in a great spiritual war and have the power to point at anything. But because we know the heart of God, we steadily aim our prayer laser at what God wants to change. When it's in focus, we send the message, "Go ahead God, I'm waiting - I'll stay focused on the target until you send the answer."

Are you praying with the specificity of a laser guidance system? Are you staying faithful in prayer by remaining focused on that for which you pray? Are you becoming lazy and losing your focus by looking at other things?

Only God can change your desire, but I am confident the more time you spend in God's word, the more you will come to see how important it is to seek God with all your heart. And when you do, you'll pray, pray often and pray hard!

 

1 Developed from Read the Bible Thru ( Is. 54:1-57:14 Ep. 6:1-24 Ps. 70:1-5 Pr. 24:8 )
2.
Scripture comes from the Holy Bible, New International Version; (c)1978 by New York International Bible Society

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