Prayer is Seeking as Well as Speaking
Seek the Lord, seek righteousness, seek humility. (Zeph. 2:3)
Zeph. 1:12, 2:1-3; Ps. 9:10; Jer. 29:13; Matt. 6:33, 7:7; Lk. 15:3-7, 19:10; Eph. 2:4
What Is God Saying?
Zephaniah was a contemporary of Jeremiah. Both of them prophesied in troubling, dangerous times for God's people, who had become accustomed to thinking of God as a benevolent grandfather who might be displeased but would never really get angry. They needed to hear that God meant business. The prophets' calling was to counter the spread of such fatal indifference. Zephaniah tells them (the Living Bible) that God will ‘search with lanterns in Jerusalem's darkest corners to find and to punish those who sit contented in their sins, indifferent to God, thinking he will let them alone’ (Zeph 1:12). All the prophets (including Zephaniah) were telling those in a state of unconcern that they had better take God seriously.
They needed to be shaken out of complacency. They were like persons nearing death by freezing. The last stage of hyperthermia is a comfortable glow from which one has to be roused before it is too late. The answer to this life-threatening indifference is, ‘Seek the Lord, seek righteousness, seek humility.’ It is the way into God's peace. These words speak to our times and our needs.
How Does This Apply To Us?
The term ‘to seek’ describes the action of God who, through His beloved Son, our Lord, sought us as a shepherd searches for one lost sheep. That is the blessed and beautiful truth. We love Him because He first loved us. We seek Him only to find that He has already been seeking us. We were dead in our trespasses and it was God who made us alive. In salvation, the first move is God's. There is much in Scripture which calls upon us to do the seeking. ‘You will seek me and find me when you seek me with your whole heart’ (Jer. 29:13). We have reason to rej0ice with the Psalmist who said, ‘For thou, O Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee’ (Ps. 9:10). The Sermon on the Mount stresses the need for, and the blessing of seeking (Matt. 6:33, 7:7). God blesses those who seek. The very word suggests qualities of earnestness and faith, of need and desire. God honors and will bless all seeking when it is done with the whole heart. Zephaniah equates seeking the Lord with seeking for righteousness and humility. These are the things that God who came seeking us in Christ wants to find in us for Christ.
Pray With Me
Lord, You have come to seek and to save that which was lost. In the hour of trial, at times when friends seem unable to understand or to help, when the power of my will has been worn, when my soul has grown weary, I have never reached out in vain for Your hand. Like the one lost sheep I have been the object of Your search. I cannot understand why but I know it is true. Oh seeking Shepherd, Your search is over.
Now I would seek and in seeking, know that I am found. I will seek You, Lord. I will bring to Your Word the openness of mind and purity of heart which permit Your will to be known. I will bring to Your commands the readiness of will and the brokenness of spirit which open the door to obedience and subsequent blessings. I will bring to prayer more readiness to accept Your will than to insist on my own.
• I will seek righteousness. Thank You for righteousness which is given by grace and received by faith, yet I will not fall into the error of supposing that virtue in life is attained without seeking and sacrifice and struggle.
• I will seek humility. I must, indeed, for it will never seek me. Pride is as constant and near as my shadow, but humility calls for searching. I do not find it hard to seek You, dear Lord. I should not find it hard to seek righteousness and humility.
I remember how He, for my redemption, once humbled Himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the Cross. Remembering this, I will humbly seek You, Lord, and accept the gift of righteousness which is Yours to give and mine to receive by faith alone.
In His name who is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Amen.
Moving On In The Life of Prayer
Prayer is asking to receive, seeking to find, and knocking at a door that God promises to open. Come to prayer seeking righteousness and humility. That is wanting the right thing in the right way for the right reasons.
