Christian Reflection and Prayer

Seek God and Be Happy

But may all who seek you
     rejoice and be glad in you;
may those who long for your saving help always say,
     “The LORD is great!” — Psalm 70:4

Seeking God means walking outside and taking in
the nature around you and seeing the Creator. It
means looking at sweet children or beautiful animals
and seeing God, their Maker. Seeking God also
means that when you find yourself in an uncomfortable
confrontation at work or at home, we need to see
beyond the circumstances and see how God is
orchestrating the situation for our very best. What
joy to know that even our toughest moments are from
God for the good!

Seeking God most definitely includes studying His
Word and integrating His messages. It certainly means
calling out to God in prayer and supplication. When we
set our hearts on seeking God, we can find Him in all
we do, and with that mindset, David promises joy.

How might you seek out God today? Keep God first
place in your awareness and notice how you are filled w
ith joy and gladness as you recognize that God is
everywhere when we seek Him.

With prayers for shalom, peace,

Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein

Verse  

But seek the welfare of the city where I have sent you into
exile, and pray to the Lord on its behalf, for in its welfare
you will find your welfare.
Jeremiah 29:7

Voice

I love America more than any other country in the world
and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize
her perpetually.
James Baldwin


Prayer

God, as we seek the welfare of our cities, may we listen
to language of the unheard. Amen.

For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also
received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance
with the Scriptures, that He was buried, that He was
raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,
and that He appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.
Then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at
one time, most of whom are still alive, though, some
have fallen asleep. Then He appeared to James, then to
all the apostles. 1 Corinthians 15:3-7

My brother Tom, a highly intelligent inventor and part-
time philosopher, has called the modern cell phone the
"Swiss Army knife of technology."

By that he means it can do a little bit of everything. It
can give you directions, show you the weather, send
pictures, take video and, well, a little bit of everything.

Oh, one other thing, they can also be addictive.

Case in point: physicians are seeing people come in with
some interesting cell phone-related maladies. Some
doctors have seen dedicated smartphone use leading to
repetitive stress injuries. Do you like to text? If you do too
much texting, your thumb's tendons can constrict and you
can end up with the injury called "texting thumb."

Recently, a California man, a fellow who is dedicated to
the game Candy Crush Saga, after more than six weeks
of constant playing, actually managed to rupture a tendon
in his hand. You've got to love a game a lot to create that
kind of injury.

All of this is a roundabout way to get to the biblical individual:
James the Just.

This James was the brother of our Lord, an early convert to
the faith, a leader of the early church, and one of the first
martyrs for the faith. James should be known and respected
for all of those qualities ... and for one more.

The ancient church historian, Eusebius tells us, "(St. James)
was in the habit of entering alone into the temple, and was
frequently found upon his knees begging forgiveness for the
people, so that his knees became hard like those of a camel ...."

James' knees were callused because he spent so much time
kneeling in prayer.

Now, I just checked I don't have the condition I've called,
"prayer knees." You probably don't either, which, I guess is
a sign of where we're putting our priorities, isn't it? It's a sad
thing that so many of us feel naked if we don't have our cell
phones, but most of us don't feel the least bit strange when
it come to forgotten prayer.

This maybe means we need an adjustment in attitude. We
have a Savior who gave His life for our forgiveness and
salvation. For His gracious act we need to "thank and praise,
serve and obey Him."

And get down on our knees in faithful prayer.

THE PRAYER:

Dear Lord, help me keep my priorities straight. Help me invest
my time in that which glorifies You. This I ask in the Savior's
Name. Amen.

(Lutheran Hour Ministries)