It's About the Focus

- Dave Montgomery

What does it mean to "devote yourselves to prayer?"  Are we to walk around all day praying?  Paul says in 1 Thessalonians that we are to pray continually.  How do we do that? 

I think that for me it means that I am to have God on my mind continually.  How would He want me to do the things I am doing right now?  I know that God is interested in every aspect of my life, not just the big things, but everything.

As we go through life, we develop personal relationship with others.  If we are around them enough we get to know how they think, what to expect of them, how they might react to a situation, what they expect of me, etc...   I want to be continually developing a deeper relationship with God, not only through my times of prayer, but also as I study His word and meditate on it.  I want to be better at listening to Him and allowing Him to give meaning and direction to my life.  I need to spend more time with Him.

 

As I go through this time of fasting and my old nature cries out to be satisfied and my new nature cries out to keep me from giving in, I will have to concentrate on drawing close to God.  It is not about the food, it is about the focus.  If I concentrate on what I am giving up (food) and not on what I am gaining (time to focus on my relationship with God), I might as well not do the fast. 

Seek Me and Find Me

-Dave Montgomery


I have never been successful at fasting.  I think it’s because in the past, for me, it’s been all about giving up food, not about seeking God.  This time I think it will be different.  I want to be continually drawing closer to God and understanding His will for me.

In Jeremiah 29:13, God says, "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart."  What an encouraging promise this is.  If we truly seek Him he will hear us and reveal Himself to us. God is incomprehensible, that is we have nothing on earth to compare Him to.

A.W. Tozser writes, in The Knowledge of the Holy, "The yearning to know what cannot be known, to comprehend the Incomprehensible, to touch and taste the Unapproachable, arises from the image of God in the nature of man.  Deep calleth unto deep, and though polluted and landlocked by the mighty disaster theologians call the Fall, the soul senses its origin and longs to return to its Source.  How can this be realized? The answer of the Bible is simply “through Jesus Christ our Lord”. In Christ and by Christ, God effects complete self-disclosure, although He shows Himself not to reason but to faith and love.  Faith is an organ of knowledge, and love an organ of experience.  God came to us in the incarnation; in atonement He reconciled us to Himself, and by faith and love we enter and lay hold on Him."

Praise God that He sent Jesus Christ to redeem us and help us understand more about Him.  I hope that we will all individually and corporately grow in our understanding of God and His will for our lives through this week of fasting and prayer.