I Will Seek…

In Psalm 119, the Psalmist prays, “With my whole heart I seek you… I will meditate on your precepts and fix my eyes on your ways…”

The people who wrote the Psalms believed that God instructs, God teaches, God leads. If we believe this then we accept that there is a sense of guidance, of peace, of wholeness and wisdom that comes from beyond us.

One of the Hebrew words for “meditate” is Hagah which also means to gnaw on, to growl over, and to chew. The prophet Isaiah uses the word this way, “As a lion growls over its prey…” Think about a dog gnawing on a bone, how they turn it over and over, trying to suck out the marrow, enjoying it thoroughly.

I like to think about meditating on scripture in this way.

When you read, I’d suggest reading only a small passage at a time. Let scripture read you. What resonates? Let that word stay with you. Chew on it a minute. Growl over it. Turn it over and over. What challenges you? Don’t write it off. Let the challenge sit with you. If you are able, turn the scripture into your prayer.

Not long ago, I came across this verse as I was reading – “The hand of God was on Judah to give them one heart.” And I don’t know why God put that verse on my heart, but I began to pray, “God rest your hand on our church – give us one heart. Give us one heart – for you alone.”

What I’ve found is that scripture can help us pray into God’s will. It guides us to see what God’s up to, where the Lord’s at work.

Today, I invite you to meditate on the following scripture, and it will serve as our closing prayer.

Let us pray from the Gospel of Matthew:

Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. For everyone who asks receives and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened… May it be so, O God. Amen.