A Seeking Heart
Posted by Sandy in Experiencing God, Intimacy with God, training for spiritual growth, tags: Exodus, Francis Frangipane, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Living God's Heart, Psalms
As we begin our series Living God’s Heart the first characteristic we want to focus on is developing a seeking heart. A seeking heart looks for God. It watches for what He is doing because what He is doing reveals His nature, His plans and His purposes. It seeks Him in every situation.
A seeking heart wants to know God – know ALL of Him – the good, the bad and the ugly we might say…except that there is no bad and ugly in God. There might, however, be some things that appear bad or ugly to us. If that’s the case, it’s because we don’t yet know God. What might seem bad to us might be things that are good for us but we resist them – like eating our vegetables when we were a child (or perhaps still as an adult). Or what might seem ugly to us is really God’s justice – or even His love. If we seek to know God, we will set aside our agendas, our expectations and even our opinions and say “Lord, I want to know You. Teach me Your ways.”
We are in good company when we develop a seeking heart. Moses, a man God called His friend, desired to know God better:
12One day Moses said to the LORD…“13If it is true that you look favorably on me, let me know your ways so I may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your favor.…18bThen show me your glorious presence.”
Exodus 33:12a, 13a, 18b (NLT)
King David, the only man Jesus described as after God’s own heart desired to know God better. He wrote these passages in Psalms:
Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.
Psalm 25:4 (NKJV)LORD, teach me your ways, and guide me to do what is right because I have enemies.
Psalm 27:11 (NCV)Teach me your ways, O LORD, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.
Psalm 86:11 (NLT)
And although it doesn’t specifically say that King David wrote Psalm 119, it bears his fingerprints and many scholars attribute it to him. I like this verse:
Put false ways far from me; and graciously teach me your law.
Psalm 119:29 (NRSV)
Clearly, King David desired to know God.
A heart that seeks God wants to know Him personally and intimately. A heart that seeks God takes delight in Him. Such knowledge and such delight doesn’t happen without intentionally pursuing the One who wants us to be caught.
In his book The Stronghold of God, Francis Frangipane reminds us that God “will not fight for our attention, He must be sought.” God does not impose Himself upon us. In my first blog of 2013, I quoted Isaiah 65:1:
The LORD says, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name.
Isaiah 65:1 (NLT)
God waits for us to seek Him. And when we do, He rewards us – we have His assurance that we will find him
13“You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. 14I will be found by you,” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 29:13-14a (NASB)
His promise to the Israelites remains His promise to us today. We will find Him when we seek Him with all our heart.
God wants us to seek Him and He promises that He will respond – He promises that we will find Him. What a reassurance, when our earthly bodies and spirits feel so inadequate to touch the heart of God! Next week we’ll look at how to seek God – how to develop a seeking heart. This week, let’s work on desiring to know God – let’s work on the desire to develop a seeking heart. Pray with me:
Lord, I want to know You and I want to know Your ways. Yet I get caught up in this world at times. Grab my attention – remind me that You are waiting to respond to me. Teach me Your ways so that I see You at work in this world. Lord, develop in me a heart to seek You in every situation and every moment.
I encourage you to pray a prayer like this each morning this week. God will answer your prayer and next week you’ll be ready for the next step.
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