Skip to main content

With All My Heart

 

While praying yesterday afternoon, I came across the following, familiar verse: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

“Lord, I am seeking You with all my heart,” I prayed. “At least I think I am. Is there anything I’m seeking that competes for Your place in my heart?”

I continued to pace and pray, a favorite technique of mine. While walking, I read from a handful of Bible verse cards, one verse at a time. I talk to God about any thought the verse brings into my mind. I walk and reflect until I feel ready to move to another verse. As I considered Jeremiah 29:13, some words came into my mind regarding things I may sometimes seek that threaten to challenge God for parts of my heart.

 

Approval

For me, approval from others is a vulnerability. More than once I’ve made a decision based on what someone else will think of me or wants me to do instead of seeking God’s opinion on the matter first. I can also be tempted to lie or keep silent about the truth if I fear it will impact someone’s opinion of me.

But if I’m seeking God with all my heart, I want to do and speak whatever, wherever, and however He wants me to. I can trust Him to help me and to work out everything for good—even honesty about my beliefs, struggles, or failings—when I seek His opinion first.

 

Accomplishment

I’m a sucker for app accomplishment badges. Words with Friends2, Kindle, and my fitness tracker all offer them. Pursuing digital badges can easily distract me from more important work, though. God has given me people to love and nurture, messages to write, and a community to serve. These don’t give me badges, bookmarks, or points, but the mostly unseen rewards are better by far. Serving God by faithfully attending to the tasks He gives is an act of pursuing His heart with all of mine.

This does not mean I can never play my favorite word game, read digital books, or count steps. I just have to prioritize what really matters.

 

Abundance

Resources. I often wish I had enough time, money, and energy to do everything I want to do, to help everyone I want to help, to follow through on every intriguing idea. Maybe this is why God has set limits on the resources I have. Maybe He wants me to talk to Him about my desires, the needs of people around me, and all my inspired ideas, so He can help me channel my resources wisely where He wants them to go.

If I yield to the temptation to seek more resources instead of seeking God’s guidance for using what I have (which equals what He has given), I risk losing or misusing time, money, and energy in the endeavor. Yet when I seek to steward my resources His way, I can trust Him to provide everything I need as I continue to obey.

 

When I seek God with all my heart, I find Him, I find answers, and I enjoy relationship.

·         What are you tempted to seek with part of your heart instead of giving all your heart to God?

·         How can you give this desire to God and seek Him instead?


Photo by coxci at FreeImages.com
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Noise

Clutter is noise to the eye A cacophony of chaos That distracts Forces lids shut Like hands over ears Desperate for focus nowhere Yet everywhere to be found Too many choices Eyes need a place to land Clean up clutter Clear view Clear mind Find peace Breathe deep See clear
8 comments
Read more

God's New Work

Stories of how God has helped others realize their dearest dreams encourage me as I reach for a new dream. I am not going to name it because I am still striving to define it, but I’ll write more about that in a future post. For now, I will tell you that it has to do with reaching some of my writing goals. A few days ago, though, I encountered one of those success stories of God helping one of His children realize a long-held dream. I discovered the story because I had seen reviews of a new author’s first novel online a few years ago and added it to my TBR. Then, a few weeks ago, I saw reviews of her second novel which reminded me I still want to read the first. I moved that novel to the top of my list and then looked to see if our library had it. Somewhere in the process, I discovered that before she wrote either of these books, this author wrote a book on prayer. * I purchased it to read right away—and did so! I was surprised to discover that the author had self-published this 38-...
Post a Comment
Read more

But

I am trusting God to provide the money, the time, the health— every resource I find so necessary, but if He does not, He is enough. He will always be enough because He is the reason for my being. He created me for Him, to worship Him through all eternity which begins right now, which began when I first knew Him back then at six. But for now, I am here, asking for needs to be met— trusting, waiting, trying, working— all in His presence. If nothing comes of it, He is here. He is there. He is God, and I’m His child. All is well.
7 comments
Read more