What's your one thing?

“One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.” (Psalm 27:4)

One of the joys of praying to our Heavenly Father is that we can bring to him whatever is on our mind and heart. We don’t need to limit our prayers in any way. We can pour out our hearts to God with all kinds of prayers and requests (Ephesians 6:18). Perhaps you are using this time of Lent to focus on God in prayer and lift up a wide range of concerns to him.

But if you did need to limit your prayers to only one thing, what would it be? If you could only ask God for one thing, what would you ask for?

A lot of different options run through my mind: good health (for myself and those I love), spiritual strength, financial security, success in my endeavours and the list goes on. All of those things are good things to pray for and any one of them might feature as our ‘one thing’.

Psalm 27 encourages us to look in a different direction, however. King David, who wrote the psalm, faced many struggles as the leader of Israel. You might expect him to ask God for security, victory, economic success or political might. But instead he says: “One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life.”

David’s one thing to pray for was to be with God, to know more of his Heavenly Father and be in his presence. Of course, he asked for many other things as well, and so can we. But we start in prayer with seeking God first, delighting in him and being in his presence. All our other prayers flow from this place. That’s a good thing for us to remember in Lent and beyond.

Photo by Photos by Lanty on Unsplash