If I want to find God, the Bible tells me that I must seek him with all my heart. The best way I know to seek God is through prayer. Private, personal prayer. In this post and rest of this series, we’ll explore the habit and the art of finding God through prayer.

Prayer becomes more powerful when you make it a daily habit. It also takes on an inspired life of its own when you feel the love of God at work in your heart.

seek God with all your heart

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.  Jeremiah 29:13 NIV

Jeremiah 29:13 NIV

When the Bible speaks of our heart, it refers not just to the ticker that keeps pumping away in our chest, but to the essence of each of us.

Do you want to find God? Many people do, but they often overlook the most reliable method of finding God:

When we form the habit of praying and presenting our fears and anxieties to God, his promise is that we will experience a form of peace no earthly means can provide.

Kurtbrouwer.com

This passage below was written by Paul nearly 2,000 years ago. It gives us a clear command to pray when we are anxious about anything.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5 Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6 Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:4-7 NIV

Philippians 4:4-7 NIV

At times, I lapse into anxiety about something I’ve done or not done. Maybe you do the same thing. I may wallow in misery for a bit and then I catch myself. Rather than giving in to anxiety, I have learned to turn to God in prayer.

Start Your Day With Prayer

Starting tomorrow morning, begin your day with prayer. Get out of bed and find a place to pray. On your knees next to your bed is fine. In the living room or the basement works too. Wherever you go, it’s much better to pray for five minutes than to put it off thinking you will pray longer later on.

We often cannot control how things go in a given day, but we generally can control how we start it. If you start the day in prayer to God in heaven above, then your day will be elevated and you’ve taken the first step in finding him.

To be clear, I’m retired so I do not have the constraints you might have if you start work very early in the day. However, I believe it is not so much the amount of time you spend in prayer, but rather the timing and the passion with which you pray and seek God.

Finding God Through Prayer

To find God through prayer, I roll out of bed and pray. Not a long prayer, but a prayer nonetheless. After having coffee with my wife, I begin praying or reading the Bible. Some days that’s all I do. Some days I just get thoughts and ideas about Bible verses or other thoughts, so I write them down.

One morning, I read that John did not write his first book, The Gospel of John, until about 85 AD. That is, about fifty years after the Crucifixion. By then, he had outlived all the other disciples to become the last one. That is, the last disciple.

Something about that phrase, the last disciple, got to me and I became a bit obsessed with the later life of John. So prayer led me to begin writing my series of Christian historical novels on the Apostle John. See The Last Disciple: Crisis in Jerusalem for more.

Then The Cares of The World Got To Me

When I began praying for one hour in the morning, I was blessed in many ways. But then I lost my way for a time. After a year or so of starting the day with prayer, I let myself get distracted and my prayer time got pushed back and, in some cases, did not happen.

The cares of the world got to me. I started feeling flat and suffered a sense of separation from God. I lost the joy I had been feeling in communion with him every morning. I figured out quickly that I had made a mistake so I got back to my original practice.

In your life, there will be conflicts and issues that could distract you from praying. Do not let that happen. By praying at the beginning of your day, you will be putting your life in the proper order.

My way of praying in the morning is just my way. To get started with your own morning prayer, here are a few things you can try out.

1. Print out a few favorite Bible verses. Read through them and pray for guidance.
2. Ask God to bless all those for whom you pray (family, friends, church leaders and members, others)
3. Start reciting prayers or psalms you know (The Lord’s Prayer, Psalm 23 or something else)
4. Or if none of those appeal to you, just start praying from your heart.
5. Then, keep it up each and every morning.

You may find you only have a few minutes before leaving for work or school or before the kids get up. No matter. Take that first five minutes and pray to the living God.

Pray In The Name Of Jesus

Jesus died to pay the price for sin so that we could be restored into relationship with Almighty God. Pray in the name of Jesus and thank God that He hears your prayers because of the sacrifice of Jesus.

How you pray is personal. Your way will no doubt be different from my way. Yet, the details don’t matter. Instead, what matters is what you do. If you start your day with prayer in the name of Jesus, I believe you will find God. Finding God through prayer works for me. I hope you keep it up long enough to find it works for you.

Yours in Christ, Kurt