A Prayer To Ask God For The One thing That Will Give Us What We Seek

 From our earliest childhood days we’ve heard fantasies and stories of people as they encounter a genie -Aladdin’s genie in a bottle - and get one wish or three wishes granted and the results that follow.  What would you or I ask for if we had one wish today?  I was asking myself that questions when I encountered this verse from Psalm 27 once again this morning in my daily readings:

One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.  Psalm 27:4

Is this what we seek most today – all through the day, in all the circumstances that surround us, with all the news that we see and hear.  What is the one thing we ask and seek of the Lord in times of joy, sorrow, turmoil, confusion, success, failure, danger, decline? 

I found it interesting when I read the next verses that describe the results of seeking the presence of the Lord – and I wonder if we don’t often go looking for the results rather than the source of that reality. 

For in the day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling; he will hide me in the shelter of his sacred tent and set me high upon a rock. Then my head will be exalted above the enemies who surround me; at his sacred tent I will sacrifice with shouts of joy; I will sing and make music to the Lord.  Psalm 27:5-6

Now that’s the kind of life we look for isn’t it? Safety in trouble, shelter and uplifted to a place above everything that alarms and comes against us?  When we find ourselves in trouble and distress, what’s the first thought in our minds and hearts? “God, I want You above all else” or “God please do something to get me out of these troubles?”

I wish I could say it was always the first but too often it’s the second.  We seek answers, solutions, provision, rescue, relief, whatever we think will give us comfort and security.  There’s nothing wrong with any of those things, for sure, but it’s one of the evil one’s great tactics to put any of these things in first place and think about God and relate to God relative to our experience surrounding these things.  God what are you doing?  Why aren’t you fixing this?  God, why aren’t you giving me an answer about this?  Why didn’t you show up?  Why haven’t you changed things?  Why am I still experiencing this difficulty?  What’s wrong?

If I read these verses correctly, nothing is wrong except who’s first in our desires and what occupies our defining of what’s going on.  Let me read those words from Psalm 27 once again:

One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.  Psalm 27:4

Are we dwelling in the house of the Lord today, making our first thought and action to gaze on the beauty of God’s presence with us and His promise to care for us when we put Him first so we don’t need to worry about anything.  Remember Jesus’ famous words:

So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.  Matthew 6:31-34

Heavenly Father, we do become concerned about many things in our own lives, in the lives of those we love, and in the deterioration of things in society around us.  Certainly during these uncertain days of pandemic, lockdowns, and particularly these days of virus variants, all sorts of concerns seek to take over our thoughts, front and center.  We need Your help, Holy Spirit, to keep our heart longing for the presence of the Lord and to see the beauty of God’s presence with us.

With those who are recovering from addiction, as Step 11 of Alcoholics Anonymous encourages us, we seek “through prayer and mediation to improve our conscious contact with God, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry it out.”

As we do that, we join our confidence with King David who followed up his prayer to seek You with these words:

I remain confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Wait for the Lord; be strong and take heart and wait for the Lord.  Psalm 27:13-14