The routine is simple. Wake early. Eat breakfast over scripture. (I know. I should read first, but why read hangry? So I kill 2 birds with one temporal stone.) Complete a few household chores. Stuff work clothes in backpack. Don riding gear. Walk to the garage. Grab…. Where on earth is my bike? It’s not hanging from the joists where I normally leave it, nor in the truck. I know I didn’t leave it at the office. You have to be kidding! Someone stole it? They walked into my garage and took my bike? How could this happen?
Regarding holiness, for us and our community, Jesus says: “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who seeks finds, and to everyone who knocks it will be opened.”
I keep my bike where I do because I want it to be available every day, when I need it. Ah, but I have not ridden the 5 days before I discover it missing; too busy. The 2 days’ worth of garage security video prove the bike was gone at least 3 days before I sauntered out, taking for granted it would still be there. Now I seek my bike, but find it not.
James addresses believers who seek from God but find not, using Jesus’ own comments as his foil: “You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your own desires.” Believers have a simple routine daily: commit ourselves to the Father’s name, kingdom, and will; our needs, debts, and plans to him. So doing, we receive what we ask; find what we seek.
The business and distractions of our own name, kingdom, and will are what steal from us the faith we left hanging in the garage, our transport into the door God leaves open for us.
“When you said, ‘Seek my face;’ my heart said to you, ‘Your face, Lord, I will seek.’”
To a week using our faith, seeking his face, every day.