Access to God

The prophet Jeremiah wrote these words from the Lord to an apostate and conquered Israel to give them hope that their days of slavery in Babylon would come to an end: 

And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
--Jeremiah 29:13

Seventy years later, when the people of Israel had repented and truly sought the Lord, their prayers were heard, and they were released from captivity to return to Jerusalem.

Prayer gives us access to God.It is how we seek and search for Him. And His promise is that when we seek Him, we will find Him. He will not hide Himself from us. 

Our seeking, however, cannot be casual or occasional or whimsical. A half-hearted search will yield nothing. We rarely just stumble upon God while we are going about our daily business. He reveals Himself only when we have set our hearts upon Him. He is not a part-time God, and He is not looking for part-time disciples. He wants more than our words, our money, or even our time. He wants our hearts, our affections, our whole-souled attention. Because He knows only a sincere and determined seeker will gain the full benefit of His grace. He wants to save and exalt us, and that requires the whole person, body, mind, and heart. When we are baptized, we don't just baptize the foot, the hand, or the head: we are baptized completely, every part, fully immersed. Not a strand of hair or the tip of a big toe can remain above the water. We must be all in. 

And so it is with seeking the Lord, and so it must be with prayer. We must be all in with God, fully invested in our search, totally absorbed in our seeking. Only when our heart and soul are fully involved will we realize the sure and glorious promise that God can be found. 

As Elder Russell M. Nelson taught the brethren of the priesthood in General Conference a few years ago:
"Now, if all of this sounds excessive, please consider how different our relationships with our wife, children, and associates at work would be if we were as concerned about gaining priesthood power as we are in progressing at work or increasing the balance in our bank account. If we will humbly present ourselves before the Lord and ask Him to teach us, He will show us how to increase our access to His power" (see "The Price of Priesthood Power", General Conference, April 2016).

It is a challenge of mortality to be totally focused all the time. Our bodies, the people around us, and the temporal demands of daily living require our attention, too. Jesus did not sequester Himself in a monastery to pray every minute of every day. He went about among the people doing good, and God expects no less of us. Nevertheless, Christ's heart was always focused on the Father and His will, even in the mundane tasks of daily living. 

God wants us to do the same. He doesn't want us to stop living, but He wants us to live for Him. Prayer is the key, the secret sauce, to living a God-directed life. When we seek Him first and foremost, we find Him, and once we find Him and let Him in, He can direct is and guide us for good, indeed for the most good.