2 Chronicles 7:14 NKJV 14
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.
Have you ever had people pretending to love you, but it’s because of what you give to them? The moment you can no longer give them what they want, their allegiance shifts because they didn’t really love you, they loved what they could get from you. That is how some of us relate with God. If that is how you relate with God, then your prayer life will reflect that because you will treat God like an ATM, you only go to him for things. It is often said that we should seek God’s face and not God’s hand to mean that we should seek a relationship with God for who he is and not for what he can give us. The term face to face denotes intimacy, a close relationship, a connection of hearts. Psalm 103:7 7 He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the children of Israel. Moses met with God face to face, he had a profound relationship with God and that is why he knew the ways of God because he knew God’s heart. The children of Israel on the other hand only knew the acts of God because they had no in-depth relationship with him. To them, God was just there to give them what they wanted. Is it not a wonder that time and time again they would drift away from God? God loves us unconditionally, but he has given us the option to love him back or to choose not to. He wants us to love him and to know him. That kind of intimacy takes a commitment that goes far above spending a few minutes in prayer before you go to bed. Just as in every relationship, the more time you spend with someone, the more you get to know them and the more intimate you become. God wants us to seek a relationship with him. To seek means to search out. You do not seek after things that are in plain sight. To seek something means that it has value to the one seeking after it. It is like digging to find hidden treasure. When you seek after something it will cost you but because you place a higher value on that which you are seeking than the trouble of seeking, then it’s all worth it. God desires that we seek his face and cultivate a strong relationship with him through prayer and reading his word, that we may know him and his ways.
Reflections
What is the content of your prayers, do you seek relationship or are you only asking for things?
Whom do you have the deepest relationship with, and what did it take to get there?
What must you do and keep doing to seek God’s face?
