Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith living within us it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith, knowing that he is real and that he rewards the faith of those who passionately seek him.” Today's episode asks us, "Are we seeking the Lord?" It gives us some great questions to ask ourselves and then talks about practical ways to seek the Lord. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
The Lord Rewards Those Who Seek Him
Hebrews 11:6 “And without faith living within us it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith, knowing that he is real and that he rewards the faith of those who passionately seek him.”
I heard this verse last night, and the Holy Spirit said, that is the one you will use tomorrow for your podcast. I love it when that happens because I know He has something He wants to tell you. The part that stood out to me last night is “He rewards the faith of those who passionately seek him.” This made me think, “Am I passionately seeking the Lord?” That is a good question and one that makes me think. I love the Lord, and I love to spend time with Him. Is that passionately seeking Him? I don’t think so. I think about what I do when I am seeking something. What do you do if you are seeking your keys and don’t know where they are? You search everywhere. You turn things over, look behind something, look through things, and look anywhere and everywhere you think of. Are we doing this in our pursuit of the Lord?
My teacher, Malinda, told us, “If we seek His vision for us, we will see it.” Have you ever stopped to ask the Lord what His vision is for your life? I mean, He made us, and He knows everything there is to know about us. Wouldn’t we want to know His vision for our lives? Wouldn’t it be the best vision as He can see the whole picture and honestly say He knows what is best for us? I ask the Lord what He wants me to do, but I never thought to ask what His vision for my life is. I definitely want to spend some time later today with that question.
The next question Malinda asked us was another great question. She asked, “Do I seek Jesus’ will for my life daily?” Wow, good question. I am not sure I do anything daily. Consistency is not one of my strong suits yet. However, God and I are working on it, and if I seek Him, He will reward me. Malinda told us we could set reminders on our phones. There are so many ways our phones can be distractions to us, yet there are also many ways they can help us grow spiritually. I often set alarms on my phone, then label them with whatever I am supposed to do when it goes off. Did you know you could label your alarms? My 6:30 alarm says, “Wake up, Noah.” My 7:30 alarm says, “Wake up, Ryan,” and my 7:45 alarm says, “Ryan’s bus.”
My early morning alarm used to say, “Spend time with the Lord.” This would remind me when I got up that if I hit snooze, I would delay my time with the Lord. He would be there waiting, but I would not show up. This was pretty effective in helping to stop hitting snooze. I should probably start doing that again. I would also have daily alarms reminding me to do certain things. If we want to set a reminder or an alarm on our phone, we can label it, “Seek Jesus’ will for my life today.” This could be a gentle reminder that we should seek His will for our lives. Malinda used a quote last night, and although I don’t remember who said it, I do remember it. “Don’t ask Jesus to bless what you want to do. Seek to bless what He is already doing.” That is a thought shift for us. Look around and see what Jesus is already doing in our lives. Are we cooperating with what He is doing in our lives, or are we making it harder for Him to work in our lives?
Now that we know how important it is to seek the Lord and that if we seek Him, He will reward us, you might ask yourself, “How do I seek the Lord?” This is a fair question, as we all want to ensure we do what God wants us to do. There are several ways you can seek the Lord. The first one would be to spend time with Him. Spend a certain amount of time with him every single day. I really like it first thing in the morning, but that might not work into your schedule. Whatever works best for you. Also, it doesn’t have to be a long time that you spend. Malinda talked about short conversations with the Lord all throughout the day. She said, “What a gift it would be to have His name be the first word on your lips.” Imagine if you were talking to Him so often throughout the day that His name was never far from your lips. By short conversations, they could be as short as “Good Morning, Lord” or "Let’s have lunch together, Lord.”
Another way to seek the Lord is to be in His Word. Read scripture, meditate on scripture, and seek to understand scripture. The more time we spend with scripture, the more time we spend with Jesus. Jesus is the Word of God. We can learn so much about God when we read His Word. We will find Him in every word that is written. When you get familiar with the scriptures, you are familiar with the Lord. If you are seeking someone, a great thing to do is get to know them.
Another way to seek the Lord is to praise and worship Him. Have you ever just lost yourself in praising the Lord? If not, I recommend finding some great praise music and playing it loudly. If you know the words, I recommend singing as loud as you want to. I recommend dancing or moving around to the music if you don't know the words. Let the words and the melody carry you. Let the Holy Spirit lead, and you follow. This is a great way to seek the Lord because He constantly shows up when we praise and worship Him. God is so good!
As you can see, there isn’t one right way to seek the Lord. Do what feels best for you. The Lord doesn’t care how we seek Him. He only cares that we seek Him. The Lord will reward those who passionately seek Him. Don’t you want to be among those who are rewarded? I know I do!
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want to seek you. Please help us! Show us how to seek you. Put on our hearts your desire for our life, Lord. Help us to desire what you desire. Help us to bless what you are already doing in our lives. We love you, Lord, and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk Boldly with Jesus. Remember, my coaching group starts up one week from today! You won’t want to miss the first week. You can sign up at walkboldlywithjesus.com or click the link in the show notes. I can’t wait to grow closer to the Lord with you!
I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!