Good morning, we join together once again to lift his name upon high and to seek him with all that we are. Join with me as we lift up our voices and sing: To God Be The Glory
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Scripture Reading Jeremiah Chapter 29
These are the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon Me and come pray to Me and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you declares the Lord and I will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you declares the Lord and I will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile”.
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As we journey into a time of prayer let us sing: Seek Ye First
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Let us pray
Father God, teach my heart this day where and how to see you, Where and how to find you. You have made me and remade me, And you have bestowed on me All the good things I possess, And still I do not know you. I have not yet done that For which I was made. Teach me to seek you, For I cannot seek you Unless you teach me, Or find you Unless you show yourself to me. Let me seek you in my desire, Let me desire you in my seeking. Let me find you by loving you, Let me love you when I find you.
Please join with me in The Lord's Prayer
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name; thy kingdom come; thy will be done; on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation; but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, the power and the glory, for ever and ever. Amen.
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As we go through life with all its ups and downs, at times we may think, "am I loved by God?" The answer to that question is, yes you are. Lets affirm it as we sing Yes Jesus Loves Me.
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Seek And You Will Find
Prayer is such a funny thing and that’s because it’s based on this notion that we can talk to someone we really can’t see or hear. At least not the same way we can see and hear the people around us. Sometimes people pray out loud, other times they pray in their heads, does that mean God can read our thoughts too? So, who is this God that we are praying to? Where can we find him? I think that’s a good question, because if you are going to talk to someone you can’t see then surely, first, you have to seek Him to find Him surely.
I don’t know where you are on your spiritual journey or whether you have pondered those questions. Maybe you’ve never worried about such questions. For me, prayer is a wonderful thing, so I want to look at this thing called prayer. First of all, prayer is a step of faith. It’s talking to someone we can’t see with our eyes. Either he is there at the other end, and it all makes sense. Or He isn’t, and we are kidding ourselves. Prayer is a loopy thing to do if He wasn’t there. But prayer is a powerful communication tool. And it’s a wonderful thing to engage in.
I believe we need to seek out this God we are praying to. Often, not always, people come to God in a time of need. That’s how I first came to God. Life’s going along OK then, suddenly, life turned pear shaped. It happens over and over again. Things get tough so we throw out a prayer. Going to God only when things go wrong is nothing new. It happened to the nation of Israel. God’s chosen people. They’d seen miracle after miracle take place. They were led into the promised land; they’d lived there for some time, but eventually they fell away from God. The Babylonians came and took them out of there promised land and took them into exile in Babylon. And they were there for 70 years. And they were saying, where the heck is this God. What’s going on. Then God speaks to them through the prophet Jeremiah and says this. (Jeremiah Chapter 29):
“These are the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you. Plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon Me and come pray to Me and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you declares the Lord and I will bring you back from captivity. I will gather you from all the nations and places where I have banished you declares the Lord and I will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile”.
This is truly interesting, because God links two things together here. Seeking God out and then praying to Him. I don’t know about you, but for me, all that makes sense. Before you can really have any deep relationship and communication with someone you have to seek them out. Think of a good friend you have now. At first you didn’t know them. But to get to know them you kept meeting up and communicated. That’s called, seeking them out. With one of my friends, I don’t even have to say anything, but they know something is wrong. My belief is, that it’s exactly the same with God. Jesus waits to be wanted. It’s too bad that with so many of us he waits so long, so very long in vain”, writes A.W.Tozer.
You know, when you go over to talk with someone that you’re not close to. That communication is kind of shallow isn’t it. You say a few things then you move on. Is that your prayer life? If it is, let me ask, have you sought after God with all your heart. Are you hungry, are you thirsty to be with Him? Have you gone after Him? Do you want this relationship with Him to be more than anything else on earth – with all your heart? This is the starting point of a rich and powerful and rewarding prayer life with God. Prayer isn’t a casual thing. Prayer isn’t the odd panic button we hit when something’s going wrong. Prayer is an everyday thing, and it comes out of a desire to seek Him out. Prayer is a choice we make in our hearts. People wonder why they don’t have a great prayer life. Prayer is a decision of the heart. Prayer is when we seek God out with all of our heart. “You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” You know what the implication is? If we don’t seek Him with all our hearts, we won’t find Him. That’s what He’s saying. “But if you seek Me with all of your heart, I will be found by you,” declares the Lord.
As people of faith, we acknowledge the validity of prayer. And when a disaster happens, we say, I’ll pray for you. But not many of us talk about Prayer. So, how do you pray? I mean how? What are the things you talk about to God; do you spend the whole time asking him for things? Or for something else. Well, it turns out that Jesus wanted His disciples to know how to pray so He told them plain and simple, the question is, what did He say when He taught them how to pray? Let’s look at what Jesus said.
When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites, they just love standing up in the synagogues, on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you something, they’ve received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room and close the door and pray to your Father in secret. He’s unseen. Then your Father sees what’s done in secret will reward you and when you pray, don’t keep babbling on like the pagans. They think they’ll be heard because of their many words. No, don’t be like them because your Father knows what you need before you even ask him. This then is how you should pray. Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come, your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread, forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors and lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one. For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive you your sins.”
Going on this prayer that Jesus taught us to pray we can see a few things we must do. First, ‘do it in secret’. Prayer is a personal, private, intimate thing. It’s not for show, it’s not there to impress other people, it’s not to make other people think, ‘wow, they can pray.” it’s not that. What do you do when you want to talk about deep intimate things with the one you love? You talk in private, because it’s not for show. “When you pray, don’t be like the hypocrites; don’t stand on those street corners or the synagogue to be seen. No, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father who is unseen. Then your Father who sees what’s done in secret, will reward you.” Do it in secret.
Another aspect of this prayer is this; it’s not just about a lot of words. Prayer is not some huge formula; you don’t have to impress God at all. You don’t have to know the right words to say either. It’s exactly the opposite. Just tell God, in your own words the way you see it. Simple, straight forward, just the way it is. Its that simple. Look at this sentence in the Lord’s prayer.
“Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
In other words, we worship God, and we adore God. Don’t loose the wonder and awe of who God is. When we look at God, when we look at who He is, it’s right that we should worship Him. It’s a wonderful thing to bow down and to worship God. “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name.” Worship is an important part of prayer. When you pray, stand in awe of Him. When you pray, kneel in awe of Him. When you pray lift those hands in awe of Him. “Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be your name.”
And what about this verse. Your kingdom come; your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Some think that God’s there just to do things for them. It’s not like that. We are here to participate in the things He is doing. I want His rule to happen in my life and around me, ‘Father, I want your will, your kingdom come, your will be done.” We can ask God for things. “Give us this day our daily bread”. We need food, water, shelter, strength, wisdom, safety. He knows our needs already even before we open our mouths, he knows what we need. It’s okay to ask God to give us our daily bread and to give us the things that we need.
Now here comes a big one, forgiveness. “Forgive us our debts as we have also forgiven our debtors.” This is a sheer acknowledgment that we make mistakes. Pride says, ‘I don’t need forgiveness’, humility recognises we do and you notice something? God puts a high premium on this, it’s a big deal. He wants to set us free from our unforgiveness. Forgive us our debts or our sin or our trespasses as we also have forgiven our debtors, those who have sinned or trespassed against us. ‘Father, I blew it today, I did this wrong today would you please forgive me?’ That's what we pray.
And lastly, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.” In other words, Lord I want to live my life for you, protect me from falling over all the time. I don’t want to do this in my own strength because you know something, I can’t. I want to do it in your strength, “Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from the evil one.”
It’s really simple and some days one or more of those things will be more important than others. Sometimes you’re struggling with temptation, other days it’s the ‘daily bread’ that we need. What I’m saying is there’s different emphasis, different issues on different days but you know something, these very simple, down to earth guidelines are such a wonderful inside look at how God sees prayer. They give us balance, they give us direction for this wonderful dialogue, this wonderful conversation with God that we call prayer. and from that time of prayer we feel, we know that Jesus loves us.
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As we come to the close of our worship for today, let us declare, Lord I Need Thee.
Every hour of the day I Need Thee Lord.
Spend time today asking yourself, "Am I seeking God with all my heart. Do I love Him with all that I am."
You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.
The Lord bless thee and keep thee
The Lord make His face to shine upon thee
And be gracious unto thee
The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee
And give thee peace.
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