On Purpose, and With a Purpose.

On Purpose, and With a Purpose.

“…he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

Most Christians either treat God like a genie in a bottle that they can rub and get their wishes, or they treat Him like Santa; they want to sit on His lap and give Him their wish list. They list out the things they want or want to happen in their lives—most of which are self-seeking. But neither of these describe what God is, nor is that how He works. If we are to seek the Lord diligently in prayer, we must first understand what prayer is, and what God expects from our prayer life. 

When the Disciples asked Christ to teach them to pray in Luke 11, He gave them a model prayer; it covered several specific areas…

1.      He expects reverence (Hallowed be thy name…)

2.      He expects us to be focused on His will (Thy kingdom come…)

3.      He is interested in our NEEDS, not wants (our daily bread…) Not donuts

4.      He expects us to be interested in showing grace, like He does to us (… forgive every one)

5.      He expects us to be interested in finding the exits from temptation, not excuses to sin (lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil)

So then, what does it mean to seek Him, and how do we do it diligently?

To do something diligently means we do it On Purpose, and With a Purpose. Not flippantly and haphazardly, but with a serious effort.

I remember when Matthew was young, I would have him go look for his shoes. Matt would look around—on the ceiling, on his bed, on top of the toy box… he wasn’t diligently seeking his shoes, he was just wasting time looking around, pretending that he was looking.

So, we must ask ourselves; is that our prayer life? Are we diligently seeking God, or are we pretending?

When we are diligently seeking Him, it means that we have an intentional prayer life. Not only that we come to Him with reverence, but also with the boldness that, as the children of God, we can have since we are assured that He cares for us, and wants what is best for us.

If we ever expect to get answers from God, we must be seeking Him—on purpose and with a purpose.

“Satan does not care how many people read about prayer if only he can keep them from praying.”

― Paul E. Billheimer

-Written By Guest Poster: Steve C. Roberts