Seeking God

Seek the Lord while He may be found.

Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you for everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. (Matthew 7: 7-8)

My wife and I married nearly 48 years ago. Before that I saw my daughter, aged 6, every other weekend. My new wife had two daughters, ages 13 and 8.  My wife’s job required her to work Saturdays. On those weekends when my daughter was with us, I struggled to be the right kind of “dad.”

The 8-year-old expected me to be the regular dad she had every weekday and every other weekend. My own daughter expected me to be like I was when she had me all to herself. They both competed for my attention. Who gets to sit next to me in the pickup? Who gets to ride the horse first? And many other situations where I had to choose. I was really torn as to how to know to do what was right and fair. I sought God and needed an answer to my prayer. My experience has been that sometimes we sought answers to prayers but have not been patient or attentive enough to hear or see the answered prayers.

We forget to heed the Psalmist, who wrote, “Be still and know that I am God.” (Psalms 46:10)

God’s answer showed up in our local newspaper, the Daily Times. There was a short article about a new book, “Living in Step” by Jeanette Lofas and Ruth Roosevelt. I obtained a copy of the book. It had a chapter on sibling rivalry. I did not know there was such a thing. The authors pointed out how normal it was and that it becomes more dynamic in families where children of both parents were brought together.“ Amen to that.”

I grew up with three sisters, one who was 4 years older who read all the time, and two that were 5 and 6 years younger who played with each other. There was no sibling rivalry.

So, when we seek God, we need to be still and yet be open to answers that might reveal themselves in different ways.

Let us pray.

Dear God: When we pray seeking you for answers, direction, comfort or many other needs, help us to be patient and open to answers from friends, coworkers, our subconscious, our dreams or other serendipitous signs. Amen.

This devotional was written and recorded by Emmit Rawls.

Grace for All is a daily devotional podcast produced by the members of the congregation of First United Methodist Church in Maryville, Tennessee. With these devotionals, we want to remind listeners on a daily basis of the love and grace that God extends to all human beings, no matter their location, status, or condition in life.

If you would like to respond to these devotionals in any way, we would enjoy hearing from you. Our email address is: podcasts@1stchurch.org.

First United Methodist Church is a lively, spirit-filled congregation whose goal is to spread the message of love and grace into our community and throughout the world. We are located on the web at https://1stchurch.org/.