Find God if you want to

"The Bible says that if you seek God with all your heart, then you will surely find him. Surely find him. It's the person who wants to know God that God reveals himself to. And if a person doesn't want to know God - well, God has created the world and the human mind in such a way that he doesn't have to...

...In nearly every case imaginable, answered prayer can be explained away if you want to. And that's what people normally do. They say, 'Well, I'm very smart; I can't be fooled by all these things.'"

Dallas Willard, in The Case For Faith (p.352-353)

In response, Lee Strobel recounted an incident:

"My newborn daughter was rushed into intensive care because of a mysterious illness that was threatening her life. The doctors weren't able to diagnose it. Even though I was an atheist, I was so desperate that I actually prayed and implored God - if he existed - to heal her. A short time later, she astounded everyone by suddenly getting completely better. The doctors were left scratching their heads.

"My response was to explain it away. I said, 'What a coincidence! She must have had some bacteria or virus that spontaneously disappeared.' I wouldn't even consider the possibility that Go had acted. Instead, I stayed in my atheism."

I find that I also tend to do that. After the desperation of the moment, after the period of weakness has passed, and I found that I survived, I question. I wonder if I had survived the trial because I have created a mental state that enhanced the chances of psychologically surviving. And I created that mental state through forming a posture of prayer and trust. So as long as I put my mind in a state of calm, I would find the ability to survive any crisis. Can that be true?

Counter-Question:
What if we believe what we want to believe? In such a scenario, would we find God believable because we already wanted to believe in the first place? It would have been like a self-fulfilling prophecy.