SEEKING GOD WITH PURPOSE
Pastor Corey Mantz
Woodland Church
Sunday, February 8, 2026
(Luke 11:1-10, NLT) “Once Jesus was in a certain place praying. As he finished, one of his disciples came to him and said, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples.” Jesus said, “This is how you should pray: “Father, may your name be kept holy. May your Kingdom come soon. Give us each day the food we need, and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us. And don’t let us yield to temptation.” Then, teaching them more about prayer, he used this story: “Suppose you went to a friend’s house at midnight, wanting to borrow three loaves of bread. You say to him, ‘A friend of mine has just arrived for a visit, and I have nothing for him to eat.’ And suppose he calls out from his bedroom, ‘Don’t bother me. The door is locked for the night, and my family and I are all in bed. I can’t help you.’ But I tell you this—though he won’t do it for friendship’s sake, if you keep knocking long enough, he will get up and give you whatever you need because of your shameless persistence. “And so I tell you, keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.”
1. Prayer and fasting reflects my faith in God
(Luke 14:12-14, CEV) “I tell you for certain that if you have faith in me, you will do the same things I am doing. You will do even greater things, now that I am going back to the Father. Ask me, and I will do whatever you ask. This way the Son will bring honor to the Father. I will do whatever you ask me to do.”
“Bold prayers honor God, and God honors bold prayers. God isn’t offended by your biggest dreams or boldest prayers. He is offended by anything less. If your prayers aren’t impossible to you, they are insulting to God.” – Mark Batterson, The Circle Maker
2. Prayer and fasting focuses my desires
“…in the gnawing ache of growing hunger is the engine of fasting, generating the reminder to bend our longings for food Godward and inspire intensified longings for Jesus. Fasting is the physical exclamation point at the end of the sentence, This much, O God, I want you!” – John Piper
(Psalm 42:1-2, GWT) “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When may I come to see God’s face?”
(Psalm 34:8, NLT) “Taste and see that the Lord is good. Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!”
3. Prayer and fasting focuses my purpose
“Fasting must always have a spiritual purpose – a God-centered purpose, not a self-centered one- for the Lord to bless our fast. Thoughts of food must prompt thoughts for God. They must not distract us, but instead remind us of our purpose. Rather than focusing the mind on food, we should use the desire to eat as a reminder to pray and to reconsider our purpose.” – Donald Whitney
a. For safety
(Ezra 8:21, NLT) “And there by the Ahava Canal, I gave orders for all of us to fast and humble ourselves before our God. We prayed that he would give us a safe journey and protect us, our children, and our goods as we traveled.”
b. To seek guidance
(Judges 20:26-27, NLT) “Then all the Israelites went up to Bethel and wept in the presence of the Lord and fasted until evening. They also brought burnt offerings and peace offerings to the Lord. The Israelites went up seeking direction from the Lord.”
c. To express grief
(2 Samuel 1:11-12, NLT) “David and his men tore their clothes in sorrow when they heard the news. They mourned and wept and fasted all day for Saul and his son Jonathan, and for the Lord’s army and the nation of Israel, because they had died by the sword that day.”
d. To draw closer to God
(James 4:8, NLT) “Come close to God, and God will come close to you.”
e. To express repentance
(Jonah 3:5, GNT) “The people of Nineveh believed God’s message. So they decided that everyone should fast, and all the people, from the greatest to the least, put on sackcloth to show that they had repented.”
Growthwork
1. Ask God to prepare your heart.
(Psalm 139:23-24, NLT) “Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”
2. Decide what you’re going to fast.
3. Believe God for something big.
(Ephesians 3:20, GW) “Glory belongs to God, whose power is at work in us. By this power he can do infinitely more than we can ask or imagine.”