I am in an experiment to show (myself primarily) that a person can put God first, seek first his kingdom, and spend time with God daily. The experiment seeks to show that if a person does put God first then not only will a crazy job and life not fall apart- it will thrive.
You might be seeking the Lord, trying to pray, and say, "its not working". You might say, "its dry", "I am distracted", or "He isn't saying anything". The Lord is actually allowing ME to go through this right now, to remind me of a lesson He taught me some time ago. The lesson is that when you seek the Lord and try to have a regular prayer time- or even if you try to have a time of prayer for the first time- there may be difficulty in doing it. The difficulty may be that it seems God is not there. The challenge or hardship of it may be that perhaps you don't feel worthy. The problem you may run into is that you have an active mind, a lot of worries, many cares, and many and various thoughts that run through your mind when you try to get quiet and still in order to pray.
I am having some of the above happen to me today as I try to seek the Lord and spend time with him. I'm glad I am going through this so I can share with you a couple of really important secrets. (there are more than these but here's two- and I certainly don't have all of the secrets!)
Difficulties In Seeking The Lord And Praying- Secret #1:
You do not know what is going on when you try to pray- your perception is incredibly limited- this is true for all of us. You cannot see invisible things and the Lord will not show you every single thing that is going on behind the scenes- or that He is working on inside of you. You couldn't handle it if God showed you everything. Your job is to do exactly what you are doing- show up and try to pray. Get in there and try to spend time with God. Do it unconditionally. Do it if you fail. Do it if you don't feel worthy. Do it if you feel ridiculous. Do it if you are distracted. Do it if you experience opposition. Try to meet with the Lord in prayer no matter what.
The real heart of the first secret is that God is working good things even when you cannot tell. The secret is that its your job to come to him. You are not being rejected because, in your judgement, you are coming to him and doing a "bad job" of it. The secret is that you CAME TO HIM. This is a mystery. The great and awesome miracle is that you did come- and in spite of the fact that you may not have done very well (like me today), he was still there. Things were done on the inside of you as you prayed- that you cannot feel, see, or understand yet. Your job is to come to the Lord and seek him. Remember that your development is actually God's job -though you have a role. The Apostle Paul told the Philippians that it is God who works in us both to have the desire to serve God- and then to help us do the work of serving God.
Difficulties In Seeking The Lord And Praying- Secret #2:
The second secret I want to cover is that when you seek the Lord its NEVER without effect. I have a saying I'll share with you, "No time spent with the Lord is useless". You cannot come into the presence of God when seeking Him- and not be changed.
It DID work. Keep pushing.
Let's GO God!
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