For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
~ Jeremiah 29:11-13
Sometimes we feel ready to give up on God, simply because He doesn't seem to be answering us when we pray to Him. This is a common assumption we make as humans. We hate being ignored!
Although I had read the first sentence of this passage from Jeremiah several times over the years, it wasn't until I read on that I made a discovery that changed my relationship with God. Go back and read the entire passage as it is written above. It says that "then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart".
It dawned on me that God really does desire relationship with His children. He does not want us to half-heartedly ask Him for things. He wants us to first want Him, to actively go and pray and seek and search Him with all of our hearts. I have found that in doing so, my desires and requests have begun to align more with His desires and will for me. I am happier. I see the fingerprints of God in my life every day, and it fills me with joy. I am never alone.
God wants us to be like the Psalmist, who wrote:
As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, O God.
~ Psalm 42:1
What a beautiful truth!
