Whom Do You Seek? Devotional for January 3, 2011

 I want everything my God has for me in 2011. I want a productive fearless life. What we achieve is very dependent on our attitude. On what have we focused? What do we seek? Much of today’s devotional is based on Pastor Doucet’s New Year message.

We are told in Matthew 7:7, “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be open to you.” I think it is significant that the word used is “ask” not “demand” or even “request.” There is a certain amount of inquiry involved. We go to our God with a questioning heart. He is the one who knows what we need. It’s not a question of our desires or whims. We want what is best for us and no one knows that better than Our Lord.

Often our askings go askew. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures.” James 4:3 I am reminded of the small child who will repeatedly ask for candy or to go out to play in the rain or to be left on their own near a busy street. All these things look good to the child. Only one with the paternal perspective knows what’s best.

As with all things, we must go to Our Lord with the proper perspective and attitude. “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” James 4:7 We need to ask, submitted wanting what God wants for us. What we really want is to be another example of God’s greatest miracle.

“I think the greatest miracle that God can do is to take an unholy man out of an unholy world, and make that unholy man holy and put him back in an unholy world and keep him holy. But we are more afraid of holiness today in the church than we are of sinfulness.”  Leonard Ravenhill

We want to be made holy by God and put to use in an unholy word. If that has not been our history, we need a different path. If I want a different result, I need to do something different. Whom are we seeking? We need to seek the Lord. We need to seek the source of life. “Why seek the living among the dead?” Luke 24:5

If we are not living the miraculous life, if we are not a holy thing making a difference in an unholy world, it’s an issue of desire and direction. What do we seek? “But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.” Matthew 6:33

“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.” Revelation 3:20.

Lord I seek you humbly, wanting all you have for me, wanting to be all I can be.

Nick