We are one week into our New Year- are you overwhelmed yet? I know when I return from the holidays my own schedule seems to be bigger and more involved than when I left it. I pray that the verses in Lamentations 3:21-23 have been a blessing to you and have given you a renewed hope for each day. God is merciful, and we can count on His faithfulness each day! If you missed the Lamentations blog, check out the January 1 posting.
For our second week I have chosen promises from Matthew 7:7-8. They can also be found in Luke 11:9-10. These words were spoken during Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount to his disciples and the gathered crowds.
Matthew 7:7-8 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. (ESV)
Promise: God promises to respond when we voice our requests to Him and seek Him diligently.
Lessons and Truths about God:
1. God is accessible.
2. God desires that I pursue Him, and He guarantees a positive response.
3. The God of the universe is a personal God and desires to communicate with me.
4. I can rely upon God to faithfully answer my seeking.
This is a promise full of assurance for our New Year! Jesus tells us that God can be counted upon to answer our pleas for help, guidance and understanding if we will only ASK. How many things do I not have simply because I am ashamed to ask God for help? Am I so sure of my own self-sufficiency that I’m to proud to ask? What am I lacking because I’m seeking in the wrong places? Jesus tells us to seek God and literally knock on His door. How do we do that? I think we can do this in prayer when we earnestly cry out to Him and lay our requests at His feet. We are also knocking and seeking when we study His word as we actively look for meaning and understanding for our lives. These verses promise that God will respond. You must not mistake God for some kind of cosmic bell boy. Jesus wanted to assure us that God knows our needs and we need to acknowledge Him and look to Him for our answers. Seeking means to ask God with an open mind and heart being receptive to His answers. Start by asking God to have a place in your life in 2015. Take Him at His word- HE will Be found!!
Prayer: Lord, guide me in this New Year to seek you in prayer and through your word. Help me to put away my pride and seek your guidance and direction for my life. Cause me to be aware and open to opportunities to get to know you better. Thank you for the assurance that you will answer me and that I can indeed find you. Give me the courage to diligently seek you this year.
Blessings as we journey into 2015,
Linda
This is the Mount of Beatitudes as seen from the Lake of Galilee. It would have been a wonderful place for the crowds to sit and listen to Jesus. The next photo is a close up of the church located on the hill. It is a beautiful chapel.
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