July 16, 2023
Matthew 7:7
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:
Matthew 7:8
For everyone that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.
Hebrews 11:6
But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.
Too many people nowadays have the wrong idea about God, just who He is, and how He operates. They perceive God to basically be a genie in a bottle, who is there for no other reason than to fulfil their earthly desires. They want God to be committed to them without them being committed to God. They want God to give them a rainbow without the rain. They want God to bless them without them blessing God, the One who gave them life. They want God to save them without salvation as Romans 10:10 says For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Many people claim to have faith in God, but don’t want to be faithful to God. In other words, they want God, the Rewarder, to reward them without any effort on their part to serve Him and live for Him.
While no one knows the mind of God, He gives us some insight into how He operates within His written, infallible Word. And one thing is clear, God tells us that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. To diligently seek the Lord means to seek Him faithfully, deliberately, wisely, and purposefully, not to fulfil your purpose, but His purpose. To diligently seek the Lord means to seek Him effortfully, with all your effort, with all your heart, mind, body, spirit, and soul.
To diligently seek God means to seek Him persistently. Some people erroneously take that to mean continually asking God for the same thing until they get it. But that’s the wrong interpretation of God’s Word. Hebrews 11:6 says God is a rewarder of those that diligently seek Him. This means that we are to diligently seek God first and foremost - seek Him to grow closer to Him, to serve Him, to live for Him. This scripture doesn’t just mean to persistently seek God just for the thing or things we want from Him. God wants us to diligently seek Him to occupy the principal place in our lives and to be #1 in our lives. So just to clarify, it is perfectly fine to seek persistently and continually seek God for a specific prayer request. But let the focus be more on God than the subject of your prayer requests. God wants us to diligently seek Him for whatever we’re asking, chiefly, so that He will get the glory from our request.
When you faithfully and diligently seek God, you can rest assured that He will reward you just as He said in His Word. In fact, He may reward you abundantly above all that you can ask, think, or imagine and with blessings you don’t have room enough to receive. When you faithfully and diligently seek God, He, the one and only God Almighty, will reward you in divine, miraculous, unbelievable ways.
Prayer:
Dear Father God,
Thank You Lord for being our Rewarder. Lord, You said in Your Word that You are a Rewarder of those that have faith in You and diligently seek You. Lord, we ask that You bless us with a burning desire to diligently seek You more in our lives. We ask for You to increase our faith in You Lord and help us to also be faithful to You in serving You. Lord, we ask that You increase our diligence in seeking You, not only for things that we desire, but first and foremost in seeking to grow closer to You Lord and to know You with a deeper understanding of just who You are. We ask for our loved ones to diligently seek You Lord and to live for You. Lord, please humble us in our prayer requests and let us keep You as our number one focus. Father God, may You get all the glory, praise, and honor, in all that we do.
In Jesus most holy and precious name we pray, we love and thank You Lord,
Amen
Copyright © 2023 Dr. Lou Ella V. Taylor PhD, CNS, RN
Comments