God's recipe for best in your life

Growing up, I remember that my mom made the best banana pudding ever.  I realized after I got older and attended some family reunions that it was really her mom's recipe and that some of my aunts could make it just as good.  Then the year came for me to actually contribute to the family reunion and not just show up.  I was at a loss as to what to make.  Then I decided to try my hand at a banana pudding.  I called mom and asked her for the recipe.  What she gave me was more than just a list of ingredients, but included detailed directions on what to do with those ingredients.  When I finished, it looked right, but I couldn't very well take a pudding to the reunion with any missing, so I had to hope it tasted okay.  After the reunion, several of my cousins asked who had made Grandma's banana pudding.  Boy! did that make my day!  But there is something important to notice here:  they didn't ask who made the banana pudding, but who made Grandma's.  Why was it Grandma's?  Because I followed her recipe.
That's the way life works.  If you follow the recipe, it turns out right.  In the Scriptures, I believe God has given us the recipe to have the very best in life.
2 Chronicles 7:1 reads: "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land."  There it is.  Simple, yet effective proven steps, a recipe if you will, to get God's attention and His best for your life.  Let's take a quick look at these steps and the result of following them.
1. Humble themselves.  The Bible makes it clear that pride is a sin and goes before a fall.  The phrase goes before a fall literally means will cause the fall.  Is. 14 chronicles the fall of Lucifer from heaven and makes it clear that pride was the contributing factor.  There is no room in the heart of God's children for pride.
2. Pray.  If you want to know the secret of the success of Jesus' earthly ministry, notice how many times He went, usually early in the morning, of by Himself to pray.  He is our example and we need, so much more than He did to spend time in communication with our heavenly Father.
3. Seek my face.  Too often, as the children of God, we are interested only in what He can do for us.  In other words, we are guilty of seeking His hands.  God wants to do things for us, to bless us, and to give us good things, but He wants us to seek a relationship with Him, not just to look to Him as our heavenly vending machine.
4. Turn from their wicked ways.  We seldom hear talk of repentance anymore.  Recently, I polled a group of church members about what they thought repentance meant.  Most thought it had to with feeling guilty or bad about something they had done.  Repentance actually has nothing to do with our feelings.  It comes from a Greek military word literally meaning 'about face'. Repent from your sins literally means "quit sinning".
So what happens if we will do these simple things?  God Himself gives us the answer.
1. He will hear us.  This one little thing is what makes prayer effective.  It's not how eloquent we are, or how much scripture we can quote, or even how long we pray.  Prayer works because God hears us. 2. And once He hears us, He will forgive our sin.  This is the whole gospel in a nutshell.  God is in the forgiving business.  When you read the Scripture, you should see the futility of all that we can do on our own.  The Bible clearly states that our righteousness is like a dirty rag.  So we cannot attain holiness on our own.  The Bible goes on to say that without holiness we cannot be with or even see God.  So, this makes the forgiveness of our sin so important.  It is the good news!  God forgives sin!
3. and He will heal our land.  This is where the best comes in to play.  God will heal our land; all of it.  Not just our spiritual condition, but our finances, our relationships, our families, everything that concerns can be healed by God if we will but follow this simple recipe.