Similarly the one who seeks God is required to take a risk. He takes a risk not because the God he relies on is unreliable or likely to let him down – God’s promises can never fail and his word cannot be broken. He is our rock and our shield and has never turned away any that have sincerely come to him for pardon. Nevertheless, in our state of ignorance the exercise of faith seems like taking a risk in that we must depend on another person over whom we have no control. We wait on him, relying wholly on his gracious favour to us and having no levers by which to exert any influence over him. We are required to step out relying entirely on the integrity of his word and the unchanging nature of his character. In one sense that is no risk at all, but in our ignorance we must place our souls entirely at his disposal and outside our own power.
Therefore don’t say, ‘Lord, I kind of mean it’ and then forget to seek him tomorrow; don’t say, ‘Give me heaven, but leave me my life largely unchanged.’ Make this the most urgent matter in your life. Persist in praying to him night and day, because you have no control over when he will answer you and he may hold up your finding him for reasons which you fail to understand at the moment. It is not that your seeking necessarily needs to be prolonged, but God waits until you are truly sincere with him, therefore don’t let go until he blesses you; give yourself unreservedly to him.