Seek

THIS WEEK was the last week of my break, and tomorrow classes are starting. That means I’m going back to challenging classes and too much homework and watching late nights turn into early mornings. Last semester I learned a lot and made new friends, but it was still rough at times. I was homesick and always sleepy, and I was having trouble balancing everything that is important in my life. It was a good semester, but it was very difficult. And I’ve been asking myself how I can stay on top of everything and still have time for myself and my friends. I think it’s a question a lot of us ask ourselves. How do I do everything?

One of my life verses is Psalm 37:5, which my youth pastor referenced on Wednesday. I like it so much that I even put it on my business cards.

Psalm 37:5 “Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.”

The solution to pretty much any problem, I find, whether we want to change something or to be changed somehow, is to seek God. It isn’t enough to treat the symptoms of issues in life. With a problem like lying or lust or prejudice, it’s not enough to change our ways without changing ourselves. Our willingness to change must meet God’s willingness to make it possible. And He is willing to make it possible for us to change for the better.

But how do we seek God? What does it mean to follow Him?

Seeking God means desiring Him, His presence, His will, and making the effort to get to know Him more in worship, prayer, and reading His word. We don’t get to know God by sitting in church or by praying only when we think we could use some help. He doesn’t want us to use Him as a lucky rabbit’s foot or a genie. It’s true that He often allows difficulties to become opportunities to fall on Him for guidance and to become closer to Him. But seeking God means daily striving to obey Him faithfully and actively, and spending time with Him to find out what His will is. Seeking God has everything to do with the will of God.

We know that God’s will is to show us His faithfulness and to bring many people into His kingdom. Why don’t we try praying for people besides ourselves, and asking to be included in what He is doing to save the world? Hebrews 13:3 directs that we “Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them.” Maybe we should lift up in prayer the people whose situation is particularly concerning to God - The poor, the abused saints, the lost, anyone imprisoned by the consequences of the sin in the world.

There’s no way we’ll know what to pray or who to pray for if we don’t regularly look into God’s word. He gave it to us to teach us about Himself and ourselves, and about the relationship we can have. Personally, I’d like to try waking up earlier to read God’s word in the morning instead of leaving until the end of the day. That way it can be on my mind and I can apply it to anything that happens during the day. It’s full of promises that He always keeps.

Here’s a bold promise for an example: John 14:14. Jesus says simply, “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” So I claimed this promise one morning when my mom told me that the doctors couldn’t give my grandma fluids through an IV because the chemotherapy had made her veins too hard to reach. I was in my room praying, determined not to stop until I heard something, and while I was praying for her my mom let me know that after so many tries, they had been successful with the IV. Prayer does work, and when we seek God in prayer we learn about His faithfulness and His willingness to provide. And the more that happens, the more we begin to pray for the things and people that God’s heart breaks for. The more we pray for them, the more we care and the more our hearts resemble the heart of Christ. That’s what God wants from us.

God promises that He is going to take care of the things we need. Jesus said in Matthew 6:33, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”

When we worship God alone and seek Him with our whole hearts, we will see things start to change for the better. That’s because as we draw closer to Him, things become more like how He made them to be – us with Him, learning from Him, loving Him, enjoying the good things He has given us. It becomes easier to share the gospel with our friends. We can have better peace with the people in our lives.

How do we do everything? How can we make space in our lives for all the things that are important?

By keeping the most important thing as the most important thing in our hearts: God. And by viewing everything else in terms of giving glory to Him.