Seeking Him

Welcome to my blog.

 

What does it mean to seek God with my whole heart?  That is what I want to explore here as I continue in my journey with Him.  It is my hope that as I make this journey I can help you in yours.

“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.  Then you will call upon Me and come to pray to Me, and I will listen to you.  You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:11-13

This is part of a promise God made to the nation of Israel. If He promised Israel they could find Him, why wouldn’t this promise apply to us as well?  He is telling us we can find Him.  All we have to do is seek Him with all our heart.  Easier said than done you say.  I don’t think so.  We have made seeking God hard.  I believe we have complicated it and made it difficult. 

 

 

Why have we done this?  I believe there are many reasons that have led to this difficulty; lack of faith, lack of trust, fear, selfishness, and believing the lies of the enemy to name a few.  These things filter our view of God and who he really is, they interfere with our growing closer to Him, they form boundaries in our lives.  We may even use these things as a means of hiding from Him (as crazy as that sounds). 

 

So in seeking Him we find all these other things in our way, what do we do about them?  That's part of the beauty of it, in seeking Him we address these issues, not on our own, but with His help.  That addresses another part of why we have made it difficult, we think we need to do it ourselves.  We don't!  He will help us, we have but to ask.

 

How do you seek God with all your heart?  Early 18th century pastor, Matthew Henry had this to say: “In seeking God we must search for him, accomplish a diligent search, search for directions in seeking him and encouragements to our faith and hope. We must continue seeking, and take pains in seeking, as those that search; and this we must do with our heart (that is, in sincerity and uprightness), and with our whole heart (that is, with vigour and fervency, putting forth all that is within us in prayer), and those who thus seek God shall find him, and shall find him their bountiful rewarder, Heb. 11:6. He never said to such, Seek you me in vain”^[1]

Wow!  This isn’t a casual approach. Look at some of the terms used here: “accomplish a diligent search, take pains in seeking, in sincerity and uprightness, with vigour and fervency,” and look at this one “putting fourth all that is within us in prayer.”  I’ll say it again, WOW!  How often do we apply words like diligence, uprightness, and fervency to our lives, much less to our pursuit of God?  Looking back I can see there were times, I can say I have done this.  Unfortunately this is the exception and not the rule.  And the last one, “putting fourth all that is within us,” that definitely takes it to another level.  As I think about what Matthew Henry is saying, I find myself getting excited about the possibilities. In pursuing God in this fashion I can take my relationship with Him to a whole new level. Wow!

 

But it is even more than seeking Him and finding Him.  Henry references Hebrews 11:6.  But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. (emphasis mine)  So not only do we develop our relationship with God, we find that He rewards those who diligently seek Him.  Looking back at Jeremiah 29, God is telling us He has “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”  He has plans for us, not that we will eke out an existence and sort of get by.  He uses words like Prosper, Hope, and Future.  This is bold, by human standards one might even say generous.  From a loving God who wants the best for us we probably don’t have words that are big enough to really express the enormity of what God has in store for us.

How can this be anything but a win-win situation for us? 

 

Will it take some time?  Yes.

 

Will it be worth it?  Absolutely!

Why not seek Him with your whole heart?  Why not accept God’s promises at face value?

We serve an awesome God.  Seek Him out, let Him be a part of your life, it really is a win-win deal.

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^[1]Henry, Matthew: Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible : Complete and Unabridged in One Volume. Peabody : Hendrickson, 1996, c1991, S. Je 29:8