Week 4 Day 5
Pray:
Ask God to reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.
Read:
Hebrews 11:4 By faith Abel offered God a better sacrifice than Cain did. By faith he was commended as a righteous man, when God spoke well of his offerings. And by faith he still speaks, even though he is dead. 5 By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God. 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Reflect:
Many seek God for a reward and they do so earnestly, yet they do not get what they seek. Doesn’t this mean God does not keep his promises? No, it means they do not understand what God promised. What exactly is the promise here? The answer is found in the question, “what” or better yet “who” is object of the seeking? Let’s reword this: “Those who truly seek God will be rewarded by finding him.” God told Jeremiah, “When you seek me with all your heart, you will find me.” And he told Abraham, “I am your very great reward.” God is the reward of this promise. Those who seek him will find him. To some this is like hearing they won the lottery and finding that the prize is “only” relationship with God and being disappointed. They are missing the perspective necessary to understand the scope of this great promise. This highlights an important fact about faith. It is impossible to please God without it; it is also impossible to “be pleased with God” without it. When we have learned to trust God, our eyes are open more and more to who he actually is and what relationship with him is “worth.” Then he becomes the prime object of our seeking. Or maybe we find that what we were seeking after and never finding contentment in was all the time just a poor substitution for what our hearts truly desired. Of course, we seek meaningful human relationships. We seek meaningful vocations and vacations. We seek health and happiness. But there is no promise in scripture that we will always or ever get these things. Though most often, if we live as God has designed us, we will find these things to be true about our lives. But when it is true, it will be because we are seeking God as our highest God. And when we seek him, we find relationship with him and satisfaction in him. When we are finding our greatest satisfaction in him, we are positioned to find contentment and even joy in what he brings into our lives. When we find our ultimate meaning in him, we tend to find the other aspects of our lives, whatever they are, meaningful as well. Faith pleases God and faith makes us pleased with God. Close the gap today on what you truly seek. Seek God. He has promised to be found when you do.
Pray:
(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today.