YOU Must Seek Him to Find Him!

“When we put God first, all other things fall

into their proper place or drop out of our lives.”

~Ezra Taft Benson

Scripture:

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

~Jeremiah 29:13

Perspective:

To seek means to attempt to find, it is a verb, an action word, and requires you to take action. 

Its synonyms are pursue, search for, strive for, go after, work toward.

Through the many hills and valleys throughout my life, I have learned that I must seek God to truly grow in Him the way He intended for us to do.  The more I seek Him and then see Him, the more I crave a closer and deeper relationship with Him.  Have you ever pledged to drink more water and as you did so, you found yourself thirstier than ever before?  Whenever I am committed to being my healthiest and drinking those eight plus glasses of water a day, just being somewhere without a bottle of water in my hand, or at least in my purse, makes me obsessively thirsty.  I have discovered my quest for a closer and deeper relationship with God to be much the same.  The more I seek Him with a sincere and trusting heart, the more I see Him working in my life and the more I want to intertwine my life with His will and His love for me!

Roots give life, they attach plants to the ground and carry water and nourishment to a plant through its branches, they also attach humanity to the Lord who then nourishes our heart and soul and transforms our mind.  If you seek God and pray for guidance with a sincere heart, and then wait with open eyes, ears, heart, and mind, He will guide you!  And when you feel He is not answering you, that is not time to panic or mistrust but rather to keep doing more of the last thing He told you to do, to trust that when He has something new to unveil to you, He will do so. 

“I am the vine; you are the branches.  Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

As I have written before, I grew up with a dad who, unfortunately, was an angry alcoholic; he was also a self-proclaimed atheist who would not allow my mom to have me and my siblings baptized as children.  Despite that fact, I felt God’s presence in my chaotic life at an early age.  Looking back now, I can clearly see that He was there for me, waiting for me to invite Him into my life, giving me the strength and comfort I needed to keep going.  At 15 years old, I made the choice to pursue religious education and have myself baptized into the Catholic religion.  I chose that religion at the time because that is what most of my friends were part of; I grew up in a Central New York town with a heavy Italian influence.  Looking back that was only step one in my relationship with Christ, I had a long way to go before I would become a “mature Christ-follower!”

Skip ahead, past many mistakes and bad choices, over 29 years later…my mom had died 2 months before and my brother just one month after her.  I was on my family room floor alone late one night, in the dark except for the fire burning in the fireplace, I was heartbroken and crying, but more importantly I was crying out to the Lord.  That night I gave my life to Christ and began the journey of becoming a Christ-follower.  For the next four years I attended a Bible-based Church regularly, I attended a weekly Bible Study, and I even had myself baptized again, proclaiming my renewed faith publicly.  I desired a close relationship with God, but I was very much a new Christian.  My mood was strongly anchored in my circumstances rather than in God and His incredible love for me.  In 2016 we hit a financial crisis head-on, when the company my husband was part of took yet another dip, except this time it was more like a nosedive. 

That “crash” made me question just about everything I had known up to that point, including and especially God.  If God loved me how could He allow any more pain in my life than I had already been through?  I was convinced He did not like me all that much, that He had favorites and I was definitely not one of them.  I was also mad at my husband for allowing this to happen to us.  That is when wise words I once heard finally hit home, I was anchored securely to my circumstances, I fought hard to maintain the idea of control in my life, and I valued my home and comfort more than God.  For the next year and a half, we fought to sell our beloved but over-priced home before we lost it, to no avail.  That gave me lots of time to do some serious soul searching!  If I really had faith in God, I was forced to face the fact that I was not acting like I trusted His plan or His timing.  It was truly a struggle to stop feeling sorry for myself and actually use all I had learned to grow and change in Christ, to surrender my will to His.  Looking back, I was much like a caterpillar slowly transforming into a butterfly.

The more I changed, surrendered to, and trusted God, the more His plan unfolded in front of my eyes.  On a whim, I began researching the top U.S. cities to work and raise a family and Charlotte, NC made almost every list.  Then, my husband talked to a business associate and friend who had moved to Charlotte the year before, and he encouraged him to move down and go into business with him.  We quickly decided to visit and potentially make that big move south after many years in the northeast.  The first time we visited to look for a home to rent, we found our Church.  We immediately felt at home and still feel extremely blessed to be a part of Elevation Church, knowing that was part of God’s plan.  Now remember, I said we struggled to sell our home for more than a year and a half, fearing we would end up losing it.  Then, as we sat waiting for our first service at Elevation to begin, our realtor called.  The family who had said they were going to buy our house two times in the past but did not were back.  The two other houses they made an offer on had fallen through and they were now ready to make an offer on our house AND they wanted to close in 30-days.  We had already decided we were moving to NC in 30 days whether we sold our home or not, what did we have to lose at that point!  Our rental application was approved the following Friday, then on Saturday, after six long days of waiting, the offer came in, our house finally sold…God’s timing was remarkable! 

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths.” (Proverbs 3:5-6)

Since moving to NC three years ago, God has continued to make His plan for my life increasingly more evident.  If not for Him, my fingers would not be striking the keyboard right now.  He led me to writing and to what I am writing; I see how my entire life prepared me for the way He is using me to touch the lives of others.  In the past I would have been a nervous wreck, wondering about and trying to control every step along the way.  I shock myself at how calmly I now handle each step of this journey God is guiding me through; I don’t even worry or stress about my next topic because God has proven over and over that He will give it to me in His perfect timing and He hasn’t let me down once.  For the first time in my life, I have truly taken one step at a time, as God reveals it to me, and the peace and joy I feel surpasses my own understanding!  As a mature Christian, I know in my heart with complete certainty that whatever God wants me to do, He will enable me to do. 

“But first and most importantly seek His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you also.  So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.” (Matthew 6:33-34)

Life Applications:

>If you feel you are not able to remember to or wholeheartedly desire to pursue the Lord the way I am describing, you can begin by asking God daily to ignite that desire in you, to grow your faith.  Do not forget to begin each and every prayer with gratitude for all you have been blessed with, including those valuable growth opportunities (a.k.a. your trials)!

>>Jesus is a relationship not a religion.  You must get to know God through prayer, reading His Word, and watching sermons; take time and make an effort to develop a relationship with Him.  I can guarantee, from years of personal experience, the more you seek Him, the more you will see Him work in your life in extraordinary ways.  If what you are pursuing is God’s will, He will make a way for it to unfold in front of you, but He will not do what you can do for yourself, He will only do what you cannot so you know it was in fact Him who did it!

“And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.”

~Hebrews 11:6