Pray. Seek. Turn.
How do we humble ourselves before God?
Verse of the Day
‘Then if my people who are called by my name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and restore their land.’
Today’s Devotional
Have you ever been cooking and one line item on the recipes actually included several different steps? I have often read a recipe and thought, “That sounds easy enough”, only to discover that it was much more complicated than I was prepared for, and it usually takes me double or triple the amount of time that the recipe says it should.
Take chocolate sheet cake for example. It’s a joke in my family how terrible I am at making chocolate sheet cake. I have tried multiple times, and it always turns out terrible. Yet it is one of my favorite desserts to eat. If it was really important to me to be able to make it, I would keep trying until I got it right.
In yesterday’s verse, we were directed to humble ourselves before the Lord. And this is one of those things that looks and sounds relatively easy, but in practice has more steps and is harder to master than perhaps we originally thought. So how important is it to learn how to humble myself before God? Do I keep trying until I am honestly humbled before the Almighty God?
Today’s verse gives us specific steps for how to humble ourselves before God. Pray, seek, and turn. Three specific steps. That sounds easy enough. Right?
If we are called by God’s name as believers, we have a choice as to whether or not to humble ourselves. Based on the warnings about pride and the nearness of God to the humble, I’d really like to learn how to become humble.
Humility involves prayer. Prayer is any form of communication with God. Prayer assumes there is a God that you are praying to, who hears you, who cares what you have to say. We don’t have to understand prayer to have an active prayer life. Prayer assumes that there is a Being more powerful than you whose input you need and value.
After we have humbled ourselves before God by praying to Him, we are told to seek His face. But what does that mean? How do we seek the face of an invisible God? I don’t have any answers here, but I can give you my experience. I have sought God’s face in silence and felt His presence. I have sought God’s face in music that worships Him and had goosebumps and tears from the tangible feeling of God’s majesty. I have sought God’s face by thanking Him for the many blessings in my life and been filled with the joy of His provision. I have sought God’s face in nature and been in awe of His creation powers. I have sought God’s face through His Word and been overwhelmed by the lessons available to me there.
And yet I am still a human who forgets to seek God’s face at every turn. I have had each of those experiences listed above and still have days where I forget the power of seeking God’s face. Being a person of true humility involves becoming someone who continues to seek the face of God.
As we seek the face of God, often we are shown the thoughts, beliefs, and actions that do not align with being a child of God. At this point our decision is critical. Do we sweep it under the rug and pretend that these offensive things aren’t there, or do we turn from them? A person of humility is willing to admit his mistakes and turn from them. Humility requires us to walk away from the things in our life that do not honor God.
Pray. Seek. Turn.
It sounds like the chocolate sheet cake recipe to me. But if humility is important to me, I will keep trying.
Journal Prompts
Answer only the questions that seem relevant to you today.
How is your prayer life? How can you deepen your communication with God?
What do you need to talk to God about today?
How can you seek God’s face today?
Which of the “seeking” experiences listed above would you be willing to try today?
What do you need to turn from today? Ask God for help with that.
How important is humility to you?