Prayer is Devotion to God
In Luke 11:9 Jesus said to His disciples –
“Ask and it will be given to you. Seek and you will find. Knock and the door will be opened to you.”
You will notice that in the way I have listed these statements we have an acrostic that spells “ASK”. We also pointed out that these three words reveal to us three aspects of prayer.
· Ask – speaks to us of petition.
· Seek – speaks to us of devotion.
· Knock – speaks to us of intercession.
In our previous meditation, we focused on the fact that God wants us to come to Him and petition Him with our needs. The Bible says He knows what we need even before we ask. Over and over, the Father encourages us to ASK.
In this meditation, I want us to focus on the word, “SEEK.” We are assured “seek and you will find” The word “SEEK” speaks to us of devotion. We are to faithfully and consistently seek the LORD.
In 1 Chronicles 28:9, David is speaking to his son Solomon – “And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve Him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake him, He will reject you forever.” What a powerful word that was given to Solomon by his father — “SEEK HIM.”
When you come to the Lord in prayer, what is it that you seek? Are you seeking the gifts or are you seeking the GIVER?
In 2 Chronicles 7:14 we read, “If My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”
Notice that our God encourages us to “seek his face.” Do you want to spend time with Him?
In Psalm 119:10 the Psalmist said, “I seek You with all my heart; do not let me stray from Your commands.’
Listen to what the prophet Isaiah wrote — Isaiah 55:6-7, “Seek the LORD while He may be found; call on Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let him turn to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him, and to our God, for He will freely pardon.”
Our Heavenly Father is looking for those who just want to be with Him, love Him and learn from Him. God told Moses, “But if from thence you shall seek the LORD your God, you shall find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deuteronomy 4:29
We were created to desire communion with our God. Pastor Cho (South Korea)… “There is a void in our hearts that cannot be filled by anything but genuine communion with God. No matter what man acquires, it cannot replace the fellowship that fulfills the very essence of man’s being — giving purpose to life, nourishing the core of his soul.”
When Adam and Eve disobeyed God, sin became a real factor and instead of seeking God, they tried hiding from Him. God still longed for fellowship with His special creation, so as Paul states, that the Father sent His son, Jesus Christ into the world so that we could be reconciled to Him.
2 Corinthians 5:15-19.
When we are born again and reconciled to God, we are given the Holy Spirit to lead us into fellowship and communion with the Father and His Son. In John 16:14-15, Jesus said, “He (Holy Spirit) shall glorify Me; for He shall receive of mine, and shall show it to you. All things that the Father has are mine; therefore, I said that He shall take of mine, and shall show it to you.” In John 14:21, Jesus expanded on what He was sharing — “And he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him and will manifest myself to him.” He continued in verse 23, “If a man loves Me, he will keep My words; and My father will love him, and We will come to him, and make our abode with him.”
In petitioning prayer, we seek from God what we need personally. But in “seeking prayer’ we have the aspect of devotion to God. We desire Him. We see this concept in Paul’s prayer in Philippians 3:7-8.
“But what things were gain to me, these I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my LORD: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ.”
A prayer asking the Lord for salvation is wonderful. However, as you read what Paul wrote in these verses, it is obvious he is seeking to know and experience the LORD at the deepest possible depth.
Many of you know that my sweetheart Joyce has been afflicted with what they call mini-strokes, that occur in the deepest part of the brain. This has been going on for twelve years and is progressive. There is not much that can be done. We are blessed that years ago we took out long-term care insurance, which make it possible for us to have caregivers 24/7. The hardest part for me is watching what the illness is doing to her. However, the thing that thrills me is to discuss how deep my love is for her. It is amazing and wonderful. But that didn’t just happen. We have always wanted our marriage to be pleasing to the LORD. We have built into our relationship the values that were important to us and now I am being sustained by how incredibly special she is to me even when the illness has taken such a toll on her. I love her more now than ever.
I believe God wants us to engage in devotional prayer where we seek Him because we want to spend time with Him and become more and more like Him.
Next week, we will share “intercession” prayer. May the Holy Spirit crowd you to Jesus.
For His Glory
Pastor Leonard
