Keep Seeking God

I have written on this topic before. To seek the Lord with all that I am. I keep going back to it for myself…SEEK…to seek Him in ALL things. I struggle to keep my eyes on Him,. When life is going smooth, do I need to still seek Him? I can handle life right now, it’s all good…or so I think…can you relate?

I seek His comfort and strength when I am weary and emotionally drained.

Do I seek Him when I am so full of praise and joy because I have remembered that He is an Awesome God? I searched my heart and I cannot say that i always do that.

To seek Him means to build a relationship with Him, to want to be with Him. If I seek Him often, longing to get to know Him, then when I am feeling low, or want something, He will listen. Not that I will get all that I ask for, or in the way that I would want. That is Not the main reason to seek Him. I believe it is vital to seek the Lord in my walk, in our walk with Him because we want to know Him, and we want to grow closer to Him and serve Him. Why do I say that…why should we seek Him? What is the benefit? Here are but a few…

Psalm 16:11 (NKJV) “You (meaning God, our heavenly Father) will show me (you and I) the path of life, (life through the death and resurrection of JESUS) in Your presence (At His feet, in His Throne Room, in the middle of you busy life—you focus on Him!) is fullness of joy (Overflowing, cannot hold anymore); at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (words) added by me.

Wow, who would not want direction to the path of life and fullness of joy! I know I would! The path to life through Jesus. The path away from death and sin! Joy, not just a fleeting moment of happiness, but fullness of Joy in His Presence. Time seeking God and spending time in His Presence is pure, overflowing JOY! Praise His Holy Name!

“The Lord is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.” Lamentations 3:25 (NKJV)

God is good to us as we wait and seek Him. To the soul who seeks Him. Our very core of our person, that chooses to seek God. We should be careful not to seek Him only to get what we want or to have Him be like a genie in a bottle to do our bidding. It is in our best interest to seek God to get to know Him, to receive wise counsel and direction from Him, to want to spend time with Him.

King David pleads with God in Psalm 27:7-9 (NKJV),

“Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice! Have mercy also upon me and answer me.                                   When you said, “Seek My face.”  My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD I will seek.”                                            Do not hide Your face from me; Do not turn Your servant away in anger;                                                   You have been my help; do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my Salvation.”

“I sought the LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.” Psalm 34:4 (NKJV)

When we cry out to God as we seek His face, He will hear us. Let that sink in! The God of all Creation hears you! He hears you and He gives an answer!

There have been times in my life where I have felt that no one was hearing what I was saying. Maybe they politely listened, but they did not hear what my heart was saying. God hears what our heart, our deepest inner place, is saying in the way a father would. A perfect Father who is God! How comforting.

God goes beyond hearing us…He will have mercy upon us and answer us. He will never leave us or forsake us. Although life will not instantly become perfect, we will have God with us.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you…” James 4:8a (NKJV)

When we seek God, we draw near to Him. We come into His presence to ask Him what His plan is for us. What He thinks of our situation. What His wise counsel and direction is for each moment. He is with us, willing to guide and instruct. Willing to give us Salvation, new life, His peace and strength and many other good things, IF we SEEK Him to genuinely want to know Him more.

May you be richly blessed by God as you seek Him.

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But Without Faith…

“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.” Hebrews 11:6 (NKJV)

Many of us would agree that it takes faith to believe in God… To believe in a God we cannot physically see. We must by faith believe that HE IS.

Today I want to explore the word faith.

I counted in my NLT study Bible/concordance that faith (in) is mentioned 105 times, faithful is mentioned 45 times and faithfully/faithfulness 20 more times. Almost all of them are in the New Testament.

What is faith? What is the definition?

Some of the dictionary definitions I found on faith are: allegiance to a duty or person, sincerity of intentions, belief and trust in and loyalty to God, a firm belief in something for which there is no proof, complete trust, something that is believed, especially with strong conviction, a system of religious beliefs.

The Bible tells us that, “Faith is the confidence that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things we cannot see.” Hebrews 11:1 (NLT)

I like the NKJV of Hebrews 11:1, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

“Now FAITH is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1 NKJV

So the dictionary definition, “a firm belief in something for which there is no proof” is similar to what Hebrews 11:1 tells us, “Evidence of things not seen.”. We cannot see faith. But Hebrews 11:6 says I need faith to please God. To please him, I must know Him, know what pleases Him and know what He requires of me. I cannot physically see God. So how can I first believe that He Is. That God exists? Believing in Someone we cannot see takes faith. Where is my “proof?”

We have faith in God because of what the Bible says. We believe what God reveals about Himself in His Word; although we cannot see God in the flesh, there is proof…we can see His work in creation all around us, if we choose to look. Like that song says, “His fingerprints are everywhere.” His Word is proof.

Some define faith as meaning a form of spirituality. Maybe you have heard someone “spiritual” called a “person of faith.” Spiritual and faith are not necessarily the same.

Or perhaps others see faith as a guarantee that good things will happen to them, like a golden ticket to health & wealth. Example…”I have faith that God will give me ….”

Still others think it is a blind leap against known facts—to take the risk even though the outcome is unknown, they choose to do it anyway. Example, “My faith will make everything all right, no matter what I do.”

Biblical faith is not any of those. In doing research for this blog, I read a lot of different views. This is what I came up with:

Biblical faith is confident action in response to what God has made known to us in His Word and in Creation. We know that He made the universe, He told us. We do not know all the details and we were not present when it happened, but He said He created all. It is an act of faith to believe He did that.

To live by faith, I think is to obey and take confident action based on what God has said about His own character—to know He is real, that He exists, and He will accomplish His will & purposes!

Faith is woven into the fabric of our lives as believers. We know that someday all things will be made right. God again says it will happen, We may not see it on earth but in Heaven, it will be as He says. As believers we will be rewarded as we diligently seek Him. Some rewards we will see on earth, other we will have to wait until we get home. We have faith that we have trusted in the Right Person—GOD.

Diligently, (Earnestly, constantly, vigorously, committed, persistent) seek,(to search high & low for, to look for, examine, to taste, to hear). Seek Him as if your life depends on it, because it does.

Next time we will look at answering a couple questions. How do I get faith? Where does it come from?

Until next time, I encourage you to keep diligently seeking Him, He wants you to find Him!

Find me on YouTube Tami Bemis Cole