What do you Seek

What do you Seek?

People wake up every day and we go through the "grind" of life. Each and every day we face choices drawing from our character to determine whether we will make our decisions based on fear, self-preservation or based on integrity and good ethics. We seek after jobs and work so we can provide food, shelter and clothing for our families. Other people wake up driven by temptation and choose to seek after those sins or while others may be seeking ways to fight those sins.

Take all the things we each face on a daily basis and boil them down to one simple question…"What do you seek"? I'm not looking for the text-book answer here. No, instead I'm asking you to dig deep, be completely honest with yourself and ask yourself what it is that you seek?

Personally, that answer changes on a daily, if not an hourly, basis. Maybe you go to work to seek income to pay for your food, shelter and clothing. Others of you, like myself, may be seeking new work opportunities. Others may have no need to work so you seek out ways to stay busy or increase your wealth.

Work is an easy one but what about basic human needs for love, value and acceptance. Do you seek any of those today? Maybe some of you are seeking to be more spiritual, better intercessors or just better people. Maybe you are seeking to make a name for yourself.

Others of us, the ones who are willing to be gut-wrenchingly honest, might say we have subtle motives to seek out sin today. Maybe we really want someone of interest at work today to take notice of us so we can escape the tensions of a strained relationship at home. Maybe you are flipping the channels on TV hoping for just a glimpse of something provocative. Heck maybe you are flat-out seeking how to get your next alcohol or drug fix. Who knows?

Life is full of things to seek. Obviously some of the things we seek are good things that make us better people while other things erode our character and leave us feeling empty and unfulfilled at the end of the day.

Regardless of what you seek I would ask you to step back from your life today. Step back from the activity, the pressures and the decisions that pull on you each day and simply ask yourself what it is you are ultimately seeking.

Take a few minutes to really evaluate your motives today. Ask the Spirit to shine light so that you will know the truth…even the hidden motives of the heart we would prefer remain hidden.

Seek a New Yoke

A heavy yoke rests upon the shoulders of many people today. A yoke God never intended for his people to carry. The burdens we all carry are as diverse and unique as each individual reading this blog. Contrary to what your feelings may say, God has made it clear that those who are weary and burdened are to come to Him and He will give them rest (Matt 11:28). He invites us to take up his yoke and learn from him because he is gentle and humble in heart and promises that we will find rest for our souls if we take him up on his offer. He tells us that His yoke is easy and His burden is light. (Matt 11:29-30)

Obviously we need to seek something in life but what is worthy of our attention, focus and energy? Can we find a way to step back from all of the issues and needs of life to prioritize and narrow them all down to a single thing worth our efforts? What if while stepping back we could find the one thing that held this promise…"If you seek after this 'one thing' everything else that is important to you will be taken care of for you". Would it be worth it?

Ask yourself if there was one thing I could seek that would squelch my fears, quiet my anxieties, relieve the burdens I feel. Well, Matt 6:33 makes just such a promise when it says "seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

Contextually this verse is surrounded by promises the Lord has made to his children regarding basic provision of food, shelter and clothing. He has promised these things to us but if you think about what is written in these few verse God is really using Matthew to tell us, "Hey, you've got all sorts of things you are worried about. I tell you, don't worry about them you are precious to me and I promise you that I will meet your needs. Now, since you know I have taken care of all the worries and anxieties of life I have freed you up to just seek after me. When you come before me don't worry about asking about all of the things I already know you need. Instead, just come to me to relate, to learn and to sit with me. The rest will be taken care of if you'll just sit with me a while."

The Lord knows our eyes and our focus are instinctively pulled to our natural circumstances but if we take up his yoke, the one he promises us is easy, and let him teach us then he promises to lead us into a place of rest. In fact, Psalm 23:2 re-enforces this truth when he says "He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he restores my soul".

God wants to restore your soul but some of you are so worried and anxious about everything in life when you come before him it robs of you of being able to learn from him. Instead, when you spend time with him clear your mind of your needs, clear your heart of your sins and just spend time with him. No Agenda, no judgment, no nothing. Just you and Him together…learning how to relate.

Taste and See

Years ago I encountered a taste and see moment with the Lord. What I mean is that the Lord allowed me to walk out a two-week period of my life that gave me a taste of what it really means to experience the "and everything else will be added unto you" portion of Matthew 6:33.

Upon starting this "taste and see" experience I had a hunger to hear from the Lord prophetically, I also felt like the Lord wanted me serve meals at a weekly single-parents dinner hosted by a soup-kitchen ministry in Bolivar, Mo. Honest truth is that while I knew the Lord was asking me to participate I had absolutely no interest or desire to work at that soup-kitchen.

Instead of just forcing myself to go work at the soup-kitchen, which is sometimes a good thing, I cleaned the slate of what I thought the Lord was asking me to do and I put those "to do's" on the backburner. Instead, I decided to set out on a journey where I would do my best to seek God's kingdom and his righteousness in my daily life. Instead of just forcing myself to try and have a heart for that soup-kitchen or for the prophetic I chose to seek God first.

The first thing I knew about this time of seeking God was that I was supposed to identify all of the crutches in my life. I was to identify both the good and the bad crutches that I used as placebo's to truly trusting God. Once the crutches were identified I asked the Lord to help me identify those things I should do to counter-act the negative influence of each individual crutch.

One such crutch was TV. I knew I was watching way to much TV. I also knew that there were some issues of lust that stirred in my heart when I watched it. Instead of watching TV I decided to replace that time with reading inspirational books. I wanted to replace the crutch of apathy and lust with something that fed my spirit rather than robbed from it. I did the same thing for each crutch I had identified. I asked the Lord how that activity / issue effected my spirit and asked Him to help me find a spirit-feeding activity to replace each crutch.

The first week of this journey was hell. I would literally lay in bed and fight with myself to read scripture. I would sit in my living room bored to tears because I was so used to watching TV all the time. The decision to stand my ground against these crutches and make my days be able seeking him first was a difficult battle against my own will. I'm sure if people could have seen me in my house they would have laughed while I argued with myself and my flesh to try and choose what I knew God had told me was right and true.

Like an alcoholic weaning himself off alcohol the crutches I had propping my life up were very difficult to release but at the beginning of week two something changed. The battle had lessened and I found myself in a level of relationship with God I had never experienced. I was hearing his voice clearer than I'd ever heard him and I was seeing old struggles start to fall away as my focus shifted from me, my struggles and my desires to this place where his love for me became so real that I realized did not want to sin because I wanted nothing to jeopardize the level of intimacy I was experiencing with Him.

During that second week I felt his heart. Miraculously, where reading scripture was a drudgery that first week, during the second week I found myself insatiably hungry to read it. I kid you not, I woke up at 5 a.m. each morning excited to try and spend time with God before I went to work…even if I fell asleep during it. :) I looked forward to getting home and seeking him again. I was in love with him much as teenagers might feel about their first love.

My desires and my heart were beginning to reflect His. Now, during that two week period I did not ask God to change my heart regarding single parents dinner. Nor did I focus my prayers on any other issues. Instead I took Matthew 6:33 for what it said…he told me to seek his kingdom and his righteousness and that he would take care of the rest. He took care of changing my heart, he brought joy to seeking him and I saw for the first time that the reason God doesn't go around bashing us over the head concerning sin is that he doesn't want us to just "behave" like good religious people.

Instead, he wants us to seek after him of our own free will because he knows that once we experience the truth of his love everyday we won't want to sin. Our motivation will shift from seeking to be perfectly sinless so we can approach him to being so lost in love with him that sin would hurt us and him much as many people never cheat on their husband or wife because the love they have for each other is much more important than the experience of sin for a moment.

Conclusion

The question which provokes my mind and inspires me today is the question I'm asking myself. "What do I seek?" Will I take up my cross, set aside those sins which so very easily enslave me and seek first the kingdom of God and God's righteousness? Will I allow such an experience to change me, heal me and transform me where I have failed trying to do these things for myself in the past?

The decision for you is the same for me. Will we venture out into the ugly unknown, the raw truth of who we are so that we can find real truth, experience and love that compels us to flee sin not because it is just the "right" thing to do but rather that we are so immersed in God's love that the idea of sin is repulsive because it would pull us out of the bliss that is rightfully ours….the bliss that is God's love.

My prayer is that the month of April will be just that for me...an encounter with love. I hope it is for you too.

RM