Seeking Him

I had a friend ask me a question this week that I have spent days pondering. She sent me a text that said, "In my quiet time this morning I was challenged to 'seek His face. To find Him and hear His voice, I must seek Him above all else.'" She sent the text asking her friends to "think it over and respond back as to what it means and looks like to seek Him first."

First of all, I was so thankful that I have friends who challenge me to think deep about who Christ is, how He wants us to walk with Him, how I can know Him more, what it looks like to live a life that is passionate for Him. . .

Second, I started thinking of what it really means to seek Him first, to seek His face, to seek Him above ALL ELSE. And, here are a few thoughts that I have arrived at as a result of those moments spent meditating on a simple text from a friend that sent me to the feet of the Father, asking Him to help me see with His eyes, to hear with His ears, to understand what I can only understand when He makes me smarter than I really am.

A simple search for the word 'seek' provides a wealth of verses that support that Biblical concept of seeking God. I'll provide a few here, but I'd encourage you to do this little exercise yourself and find a few verses that speak to you. Indeed God wants us to seek Him, and when we seek Him, He will be found. I have always held to the simple truth that since the beginning it hasn't been Him who was "playing hide-and-seek". No, in the garden, when He came looking to fellowship with humanity, it was Adam and Eve who were hiding. God didn't create the hide-and-seek game. That would be us!!! His word clearly teaches and proves again and again that when we seek Him, we find Him (Proverbs 8:17, Matthew 7:7). Most often we find Him running for us, pursuing us, seeking us out!!!

So, read through these verses and see what you think about the idea of seeking Him. I'll share my thoughts; I'd love to hear some of yours.

Deuteronomy 4:29 But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

The manner/condition in which we seek Him really does affect whether we find Him. There is an indication here that we will find Him "if" we seek Him with ALL of our heart. I wonder how often I seek Him in a half-hearted, distracted, self-promoting fashion. I wonder how often I seek Him with my plans in mind all the while praying for "His will" when really I want His will to match my plans. This weekend He and I had to have a loving father-daughter talk about this one. I found myself at a tough place with some BIG STUFF in our life and I realized that I was telling Him I trusted Him while really I was kinda throwing a little fit about the possibilities of it not turning out the way that I thought best lined up with His will. He had to let me know real quick-like that I was really wanting to control this thing and that maybe I was too worried about the "end result" instead of so many things He had already taught me through the process. What a blessing comes when I stop seeking the results/answers and just seek Him.

2 Chronicles 7:14 if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.

Seeking God's face involves humility, repentance, and turning from wickedness. Seeking God's face is a lifestyle that engages heaven and affects earth. The effectiveness of my prayer life has the potential to radically change the course of my generation if I will approach God's throneroom with humility yet boldness, with repentance, with clean hands and a pure heart.

2 Chronicles 12:14 He did evil because he had not set his heart on seeking God.

Psalm 119:10 I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands.

Wow! If the potential of seeking God's face is that I can keep His commands, then the extreme opposite of that is the potential for evil if I do not set my heart on seeking Him.

Psalm 9:10 Those who know your name, trust in you, for you, O Lord, have never forsaken those who seek you.

What a promise!!! Seeking equals security!!! God promises that if we seek Him, He will never forsake us.

Here are a few other verses you can look up: Psalm 10:4, Psalm 105:4, Psalm 119:2, Psalm 63:1, Psalm 27:8, Jeremiah 29:13, Proverbs 8:17. . .

I think for me, seeking Him first means a lot of different things. . .

It means seeking Him early in the morning, asking Him to bless the day, asking Him to use the day for my good and His glory. It means seeking Him early in the morning, acknowledging that He is my only hope and that I am desperate for His power, wisdom, and strength to make anything other than a mess of the day He has given me.

It means seeking Him in ALL situations for direction, for what I should say, how I should respond (or shouldn't--that's usually the hard part for me). It means asking Him to OPEN my eyes to the people around me, to those who are hurting, to the opportunities around me that may seem like interruptions or inconveniences that are really DIVINE APPOINTMENTS.

It means seeking Him when I'm feeling less than who He would desire for me to be, repenting from the self-centered, narrow-minded, earthly creature that I am. It means hearing Him when He says, "Jennifer, that's just pride making you worry more about what they think than what I think. That's a control issue, give it to me. Jennifer, do you really want to live the gospel or just read it?"

It means seeking Him in the daily routines of laundry, groceries, homeschooling, conversations with my husband, bike rides with my girls. . . It means seeing Him in my parents, my brother and sister-in-law and nephew, in my in-laws, my best friends. It means seeking my direction, my choices in life from Him and His Word, from prayer, not from my best spiritual mentor or a billboard on the street or how I feel on Sunday following worship service.

That's what seeking Him first, seeking His face, hearing His voice looks like to me. . .

What about you? Would you share your thoughts? I'd love to hear.