Seek The Lord

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness.

And all these things will be added unto you. Matt 6:33



When we have ideas presented to us that we don’t know where they come from, we need to pray.

When we receive blessings from God through others, we need to give thanks.

When we hear of someone hurting physically, we need to lift them up to God in prayer.

When we know of people who are facing this world without hope, we need to knock on the doors of heaven until we get an answer.

When we know of friends who face family issues in their lives, we ask God to guide them through.

When things seem to go against us, we need to check and see if we are right in our relationship with God.

What am I saying here? We need to pray, pray and then pray some more. With the present state of the world, we can’t do anything but pray.

Whenever we have tough decisions to make, we need the Lord’s guidance. He tells us to seek Him. His message is to approach Him first.

Look To The Lord

1 "Listen to me, you who pursue righteousness

and who seek the LORD:

Look to the rock from which you were cut

and to the quarry from which you were hewn;

Isaiah 51:1 (NIV)



We hear of strange behaviors in people’s lives, sometimes, the tales we hear are of people who receive mistreatment from others. Then, we hear stories of those who say or do hurtful things in order to cause problems to those who earlier received the malicious treatment.

As I sit her in the quiet of my home, I wonder why people have to inflict those around them with such grief. Those who receive these hurts find themselves hard-pressed in dealing with those who repeatedly choose to cause hurt.

We live in trying times, unemployment, health issues, and general unrest abounds everywhere we look. These circumstances do not respect any age group, any socioeconomic class, or people in any career.

People of Christ aren’t exempt from these tribulations. We have learned that certain trials beset us because we are still human; we call them issues of life.

What can we do to conquer these vexations? I have seen people act prideful and choose to ignore the issues at hand. Their thinking is that the circumstance will go away on its own. Others choose to aggressively fight the situation. We see this when they or their loved one has a life-threatening disease. Sometimes, this approach has a positive outcome. I recently heard of a family who had less than a week to deal with the health issue of a loved one before he passed away. The family is relying on God to comfort them. At other times, the outcome is a negative one. We all know of families that have lost fellowship with one another because someone said something that caused hurt to another.

From time to time we have to prioritize our lives. We have to make our relationship with God real and lasting. We have to let Him direct our ways.

Trust

Trust the Lord your God with all your heart

and lean not on your own understanding;

in all your ways acknowledge him and he

will make your paths straight Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV)



I have loved this verse since I discovered it in the mid 1980s. It spoke to me then and still speaks to me today.

The words from Solomon, the wisest man in the world, say a lot to us. In a few short words he tells us to rely on God not what we know. God sees the big picture. We only see a tiny part of it.

Our understanding is finite, limited to our perspective. God’s knowledge of us and our circumstances is unlimited. He was there when we were created. He knows all about us, even what makes us do the things we do.

There is a conditional promise in this passage.

“. . . in all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.” In the King James the promise reads, “. . .He will direct thy paths.” We, as His children, want God to take the nasty curves out of our lives. These trials come to all of us; they are a part of life. But God will help us through these rough spots.

The foundation of this promise is our trusting God. It seems we have to rely on Him, depend on what He says, and believe He controls our lives in order for God to truly care for our needs.

Seek

Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness

and all these things will be given to you as well.

Matthew 6:33 (NIV)





I find verbs to be interesting. Recently, I did an exercise with the verbs in the mission statement of the nonprofit ministry I volunteer with.

We learned in grade school that verbs were action words. Except for the verbs of being, all of them give us a mental picture of action taking place.

In the scripture above, we see the word “seek”. This word reminds me of when I have lost something and I begin to look for it. I wear a very special dinner ring. It has sentimental value. The top, shaped in the word love, came with a garnet that filled the letter “O”. The garnet is my son’s birthstone. I remember losing the ring a few times. One time, I retraced my steps at home, even asked the pastor of the church I had started attending if it was found.

I went to so far as to write out notices for the bulletin boards at work; I also posted one on the mirror in the ladies’ restroom. I did find that little white gold dinner ring but not until I searched everywhere.

Yes, in order to receive the good things of God we have to search for His rule in our lives and what He wants us to do.

Through His Mercy

Luke 18:3543



“He called out,” Jesus, Son of David

Have mercy on me.” Luke 18:38 (NIV)



The blind beggar called out to Jesus as He passed by. We know the story, the Lord stopped and asked the mendicant what he wanted done for him. “Lord, I want to see,” was the reply. Jesus’ response came quickly, “Receive your sight, your faith has healed you.”



We serve a merciful God. He answers our prayers because of His great love for us. He protects us from harm, guides us through difficult times. When we hurt, He comforts us.



Our God showed His mercy to mankind from when He discovered Adam and Eve’s sin. The tenderness He displayed when he made them coverings for their bodies and chose to let them live speaks to our souls.



When Jesus hung on the cross and the one criminal spoke words of understanding about Christ’s having done nothing wrong, God’s Son extended mercy to him and promised he would be in paradise.



As ambassadors of Christ we are to extend mercy to those we meet. As we go through each day, we should greet others with a smile or a kind word, give a listening ear, and love them as God would.



When we approach God’s throne with a need, ours or another’s, we approach humbly. We ask Him to grant our request out of His mercy, not because we are such good praying people.

Sometimes, we have to listen for God to speak. We shouldn’t be in a hurry for His answer because He works on His own time table.

No matter how long we have to wait for God’s answer, we have to obey what He says. It seems that when we hear His word and we choose to follow our own path, we can risk losing our special closeness with Him. It is only through God’s mercy we don’t.

When God Speaks

“Then I heard the voice of the

Lord saying, “Whom shall I send?

And who will go for us?” Isaiah 6:8 (NIV)



Does God speak to His people today as He did in Biblical times? Sometimes He does.

A fleeting thought can be God speaking to our hearts. We recently had the husband of one of the lady’s at church pass away. On that day, his name came to my mind several times. I did not know this man. I did know he had been in the hospital and they couldn’t find a diagnosis. The day before he passed away, his daughter told the church that he had been diagnosed with Cancer a few days earlier.

God can speak through others to get our attention. A blogging friend e-mailed me and asked me if I was going to attend a writing conference that meets just down the interstate from my hometown. Then, this past week a friend from church asked me if I was going to attend it. She might be interested in going with me. As of this writing, I am unsure if I am able to attend.

We have times when what God tells us to do is totally not anything we would do. I got involved in Drama Ministry at church because I felt God leading me. I don’t believe it is my nature to portray the characters I have. This past Mother’s Day, I portrayed the President, I can claim to be the first woman President of the United States . In the summer of 2009, I played a “motorcycle mama” whose husband and two kids were asked to attend church with another family.(I have a picture of my alter ego) But, I couldn’t have done that unless I chose to let God lead.

When We Seek God

“You will seek me and find me when you

seek me with your whole heart.”

Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV)



When I was a girl, the kids in my neighborhood used to play “Hide and Go Seek”. One person was chosen as “it”. He or she would hide their eyes and count to 100 by ones. The rest of the group would run and hide wherever they could. When the counter would get to 100, he or she would yell, “Here I come ready or not.” While “it” searched for the others, they would try to get to base without getting caught. Sometimes the searcher would yell out, “Olli, Olli, Oxen Free,” and then something about those still out can come in without getting caught,

The seeker in the game had to have sharp eyesight and had to run fast in order to catch the other players.

When we seek God or his guidance, we have to involve our whole hearts. What does this mean?

Does it mean we come humbly? We have to come knowing God has the answer we search for. We have nothing to help us except Him.

Does it mean we come honestly? We have to come before Him without pretense. We may even have to acknowledge that we are sinners.

Does it mean we come repentantly? Once we tell the Lord of our sinful state we should express our sorrow and ask His forgiveness.

Does it mean we come expecting an answer? We come to God. We lay our pleas before Him. We wait for His answer. We accept His answer, even though the outcome maybe tough. We accept His answer because He is God and He knows best.