Mark Thomas, EMW General Secretary
The EMW Summer Call to Prayer
WE HAVE THE PRIVILEGE OF SEEKING GOD
A gap can quickly develop between what we believe and how we live our lives. Nowhere can this be more true than when we say that we seek the Lord.
Hear, O LORD, when I cry aloud; be gracious to me and answer me! You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.”
Psalm 28:7-8
How often we forget that God is not indebted to us, and as sinners we do not even have the right to approach him! He is pure and holy, but in the Lord Jesus Christ, both we and our prayers are cleansed by his blood so that we can draw near without fear. When we seek God we must do so with clean hands and a pure heart, humbling ourselves under his mighty hand, that he may exalt us in due time.
To seek God means to desire his presence with us, and his will to be done in our lives and in our world. The Bible is full of great encouragements to seek God, such as “I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently will find me” (Proverbs 8:17). When we seek God, we should do so boldly, knowing that he abounds in mercy and gives grace in time of need (Hebrews 4:16). It is he that has the Son that has life, and with him God will freely give us all things.
However, the most significant thing is not that he promises grace and mercy, but that he promises to come to us himself. We can never separate the Lord’s blessing from the Lord himself – they come to us in his own hand – and the heart of every true Christian would have it no other way.
The Lord is greater than his blessings, and what a privilege that we can seek him, knowing that by the Holy Spirit, the Father and the Son will come and make their home with us.
Pray that the Lord would give us a humble, burning desire to know him and for his will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.