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Key Bible Verse: In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me in earnest, you will find me when you seek me (Jeremiah 29:12–13, NIV).

Bonus Readings: James 4:2–3; 1 John 5:14–5

In the movie Bruce Almighty, Bruce Nolan (Jim Carrey), discouraged with his life, complains to his girlfriend that God does a poor job of running the world, and that he could do far better. To his surprise, God (played by Morgan Freeman) gives him the chance.

Bruce fails at playing God and after wrecking his relationship with his girlfriend, Grace, he begins to ask God for help. The turning point comes when God helps Bruce cut through the pretense and teaches him to pray about the real issues in his life.

"What do you want me to do?" Bruce asks.

"I want you to pray, son. Go ahead."

Bruce squints his eyes and attempts a prayer, "Um … Lord, feed the hungry and bring peace to … um … all of mankind. How's that?"

"Great … if you want to be Miss America," God responds. "Now come on. What do you really care about?"

"Grace," Bruce says, thinking of his girlfriend.

"Grace. You want her back?"

Bruce seems surprised by his own response. "No. I want her to be happy, no matter what that means." Bruce closes his eyes. "I want her to find someone who will treat her with all the love she deserved from me. I want her to meet someone who will see her always as I do now, through your eyes."

"Now that's a prayer," God says. "I'm going to get right on it."

Have you ever felt that you could do God's job better than he can? That if he would just listen to you that your problems would be solved? Perhaps it's the raise you want at work, the car you admire at the dealers, or the person you would like to change. Is it possible that the problem is not that God isn't answering your prayers, but that you are asking for the wrong thing?

In today's verse, God tells Jeremiah to look for him in earnest. God wants us to seek for him and, as Bruce found out, to learn to see things through God's eyes. Only as we meditate on God's word, can we begin to think as God does. We are shortsighted, seeing only the immediate. Without God's help, we miss the essential, eternal elements of our lives.

Often our prayers are selfish, centering only on our desires. We are so focused on what we want that we can't see the bigger picture. We don't realize that God is doing something much greater in us by moving us beyond our wants to our true need—seeing him as he really is and valuing him above all else. This naturally moves us to love others and want their best. As we watch Bruce learn to love Grace this way, the dawning begins in our own hearts.

God always answers our prayers in a way that will honor him and be the best possible thing for us and for those we love. He sees the beginning from the end, knows our hearts, and always accomplishes his purposes. Only he knows how to answer in a way that will truly benefit us in the long run. Often God is more concerned in changing our hearts than in granting our "wish list."

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