SEEKING GOD BY SERVING OTHERS

This week, I am exploring what God says about SEEKING HIM. As I enter prayer now, I reflect on God’s instruction: “Even now,’ declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” 

Lord, let me seek after You with all my heart.   

I pray I would hear from You as I seek You today. 

Let me consider the words of God from Isaiah 58:6-10: 

Is not this the kind of fasting I have chosen: to loose the chains of injustice and untie the cords of the yoke, to set the oppressed free and break every yoke? Is it not to share your food with the hungry and to provide the poor wanderer with shelter—when you see the naked, to clothe them, and not to turn away from your own flesh and blood? Then your light will break forth like the dawn, and your healing will quickly appear; then your righteousness will go before you, and the glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry for help, and he will say: Here am I. If you do away with the yoke of oppression, with the pointing finger and malicious talk, and if you spend yourselves in behalf of the hungry and satisfy the needs of the oppressed, then your light will rise in the darkness, and your night will become like the noonday. 

If I desire to hear from God, I will need to follow His instructions.  When I share my food with the hungry, provide the wanderer with shelter, clothe the naked, and treat each of these as my own flesh and blood, then God will shine His light on me, which breaks forth like the dawn.   

I will find that His righteousness goes before me, and the glory of the Lord follows me always, healing me from a worldly life that desires to consume me.  When I call, the Lord will answer; when I cry for help, He will say “Here am I.” 

Lord, Your righteousness shines like the dawn, and I want to stand in the glory of your righteousness.  Guide me to You, so I can present my life as an offering to You. 

By applying God’s resources to meet the needs of those He wishes to bless, then God will bless me by making His light shine in the darkness; it will shine so brightly that midnight will seem like noon. 

Lord, please guide me in my pursuit of You.  You will bring those into my life who need Your blessing; by blessing them I will be blessing You, and in turn I will be blessed!  In Jesus’ Name, Amen.