You Will Seek Me...

At church on Sunday we had an incredibly beautiful service, a good portion of which was spent in the throne room of heaven. We all basked in the warm glow of God's presence and allowed Him to work in our hearts as He desired. It was a truly beautiful morning.

Near the end of our worship time, my pastor asked a very blunt question.

"How many of you really feel God at work in your heart?"

Amazed, I watched as only a small portion of our congregation raised their hands. I lifted mine immediately, assuming that everyone else would feel the same way I did, and I felt almost embarrassed as I realized that I was a exception. I felt sorry for everyone who was being honest and saying that God was doing absolutely nothing inside of them. Then I began to wonder what the problem was.

Looking back over the morning, I remembered when our amazing worship time had begun. Everyone was singing and praising God, and then our pastor come up to the podium and we all stopped. But he began to sing again- as he often does- and only a handful of us stood up to worship with him. The other group was probably saying, "Worship time is over. I'm just going to sit and wait for him to start preaching." They are used to the schedule and they want the services to remain that way.

After thinking back to that moment, I realized that those of us who stood up to worship again were also those of us who raised our hands about the work that God was doing inside of us. Coincidence? Absolutely not.

Google tells us that we make about 35,000 decisions everyday. No wonder we are easily distracted from our First Love! But, even so, it is possible to seek Him. It is possible to find Him. And, once we find Him, like the Beloved in Song of Songs, we must hold Him and not let Him go. (Song of Songs 3)

So how do we do it? Well, how could seventy percent of my church's congregation have had an incredible experience with God on Sunday morning? Firstly, they needed to stand up and worship Him. We can't expect God to just come down and transform us while we sit in a chair and stare blankly at the wall. We must open our hearts to Him and put forth the effort- no matter how much it takes- to seek Him with all of our hearts.
"You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart." Jeremiah 29:13 

Secondly, we must not be complacent. Jesus has a burning desire to be intimate with you, but it is your choice whether that intimacy occurs or not, for it must be two-sided. If you don't have a passionate desire for Him, ask Him to give you a hunger for His presence. Most likely, you'll discover that many of the things you already desire can be found in Him and you never realized it.

It may not be effortless, dear friends, but think of any truly magnificent relationship- true love, a close friendship, a family bond- none of them are. And what an incredible gift it is to be able to say we are best friends with the Creator of the universe.