Having a heart that seeks wholly after God is the one sure way for living and fulfilling the Christian life to its full potential; however, it is also a difficult endeavor. It is not difficult because it is complicated but because human nature gets in the way. By nature, we seek our own good and we seek our ways first. Even when we seek to do good our motivations are usually self-centered. We do good because it makes us feel good; we seek God because we see the benefit His goodness has in our lives. While it is true that we cannot separate the benefits God gives from the relationship we have with Him, the benefits should not be our sole motivation. We are human and it is not possible to be completely selfless; however, it is possible to seek God for the purpose of knowing Him and not merely seeking the rewards in His hand. God told Abraham, “I am your exceedingly great reward”. Knowing Him is our greatest reward and nothing in this life can truly be enjoyed as it was intended outside of Christ.
When we know God and see how His goodness is revealed through everything in this life, only then are we able to truly appreciate the things of this life. When God’s purpose is removed, things take on an unbalanced value that creates a void in our life rather than a blessing. 1 John states it well:
1 John 2:15-17 15 Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world -- the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life -- is not of the Father but is of the world. 17 And the world is passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides forever.
By nature, our affections are drawn to this world and if this world becomes our love, this is the evidence that we are not walking in the love of God. Is there anything you possess that would be devastating if you lost it today? When God is our reward, the things of this life have their rightful place. Nothing balances the life of the Christian other than seeking the Lord. In Him life has meaning, purpose, fulfillment and balance.
Seeking comes from God
All good things have their source in God. This goes for every good thing in the Christian’s life. Our righteousness is not our own, but is a gift from God (2 Cor 5:21), our works come from God (Ephesians 2:10), the fruit of our labors comes from God (John 15:4-5) and even our faith comes from God (Romans 12:3). This is also true for seeking God. No one seeks after God; we either respond to God drawing us or we resist God’s call. Look at Psalm 14:2-3
2 The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, To see if there are any who understand, who seek God. 3 They have all turned aside, They have together become corrupt; There is none who does good, No, not one.
This is reiterated in Romans 3:12. By nature, we seek our own lusts, turn aside after our desires and put our affections on the things that promise to fulfill us. In reality, nothing can fulfill our desires outside of God. The scriptures say it well in Proverbs 27:20b, “The eyes of man are never satisfied”. We spend our lives grasping for the final thing we need that will satisfy us only to find out that in a few days it no longer provides the satisfaction we hoped for. We are all guilty of being self-centered and spending our energy on gratifying ourselves with this passing life rather than seeking the eternal things of God.
Fortunately our God is patient and loving. When God’s people turned from Him and His anger was kindled, the Bible says that God called into remembrance that man is only dust. We are not capable of seeking spiritual things without first having the Spirit of God working within us to produce these things. God draws us to Christ for salvation and then God draws us to Himself to gain the things of the Spirit. It begins with God’s call to come. Look at Isaiah 55:1-3
"Ho! Everyone who thirsts, Come to the waters; And you who have no money, Come, buy and eat. Yes, come, buy wine and milk Without money and without price. 2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, And your wages for what does not satisfy? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, And let your soul delight itself in abundance. 3 Incline your ear, and come to Me. Hear, and your soul shall live; And I will make an everlasting covenant with you -- The sure mercies of David.
The Spirit of God stirs within us and calls us to come and taste the spiritual things that are everlasting. God creates a hunger and thirst within us while He calls out to us to satisfy this desire with what He offers. At the same time, the world continues to beckon us to try to fill this void with the things of the flesh. The things of the flesh will temporarily gratify, but it can never satisfy. Only God can satisfy and when we seek the things He has stirred within us, He will satisfy us completely. Notice that we are told to let our soul delight in the abundance. Jesus said that He came to give us life abundantly and if we belong to Him, all we have to do is respond to the call and be satisfied. When we listen to the call of our flesh, we then resist the abundance that is at hand and pursue the false promises of the lust of the flesh. We either spend our wages on the things that cannot satisfy or we delight in God’s abundance.
Psalm 105:3-4 3 Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who seek the LORD! 4 Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face evermore!
All good things are from God and we will rejoice when we seek God with our whole heart. You will never find the deeper things of God until you first seek His face. Out of your relationship with God, all good things flow. We are not merely seek things, but rather the One who provides all good things.
Seek by Faith
Seeking God must first be founded upon faith. I frequently talk about faith but I feel it necessary to briefly reiterate what faith is according to the scriptures. Faith is believing God to the point of trusting Him. Faith is not based on our words or our ability to muster up faith. Faith is a gift from God. God deals each person a measure of faith (Romans 12:3). Faith is also increased by God – not man. In scripture we are told to add to our faith virtue, knowledge, self-control, perseverance, godliness, brotherly kindness and love. We are never told to increase our faith; instead, we are told that we have already been given all things that pertain to life and godliness. For this reason, we add all these things to our faith (see 2 Peter 1). All of our spiritual efforts are based on the faith that has already been given to us by God’s divine power. Anyone who claims that they have made their faith great only shows their misunderstanding about faith.
Even the apostles recognized that they needed God to increase their faith. In Luke 17, the apostles approached Jesus and asked Him to increase their faith. Jesus then explained to them that the only faith needed is the size of a grain of mustard seed. In other words, we already have the faith needed for what God has placed before us. If our faith needs to be increased, God will provide what is needed. In reality, most problems people have with faith is the unwillingness to believe God. We have the ability to believe, but we allow our flesh to determine our decisions rather than trusting God. Fear will always challenge our faith, but fear is not a sin. When we allow fear to overthrow our faith, then we fall into unbelief which is sin.
Seeking God is based on faith. Faith NEVER calls us to disengage our minds but instead faith calls us to become sober minded. Look at 1 Peter 1:13-16
13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, "Be holy, for I am holy."
To be sober means to be calm, in control and alert. False religions teach people to turn their minds off but the scripture always teaches us to be on guard, alert and have faith based on reason. We seek based on the truth of God’s word. I begin by resting my hope fully on what God has revealed through Christ. Once I have this foundation of truth, I can then build my life on Jesus Christ, the only sure foundation. Faith is the starting point for seeking. Look at Hebrews 11:6
6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
God rewards those who seek. We have already seen that no one seeks God on their own (Psalm 14 and Romans 3:11-12) but those who come do so because God draws them. In John 6:44, Jesus says, “No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” It is the call of God and the drawing of the Holy Spirit that stirs our hearts within us to seek. God calls us and we either respond to His call or we resist His call. When we respond, God reveals Himself to us and when we resist, God hardens our hearts (See Exodus 10, Romans 1:21-32, 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12). The reward is to those who respond to the call of God and apply their heart to believe based on the faith God has measured to us. Psalm 27:8 says it well:
8 When You said, "Seek My face," My heart said to You, "Your face, LORD, I will seek."
If we believe God, we will respond to His call to seek and find the reward of God. Seeking is an act of faith while apathy and disobedience is an act of unbelief. God measures into our hearts the ability to believe, calls us to come and reveals enough of Himself to stir our hearts to seek. We then respond by seeking or turning our hearts away from Him. God first calls you to seek His face and then you either seek Him or turn away to other things.
Seeking requires Commitment
Faith is a free gift but spiritual maturity only comes to those who apply themselves to God’s purpose. In 2 Peter 1 the scriptures reveal all the spiritual disciplines we need for a fruitful life in Christ and teaches us that the divine power of God has already provided everything we need. Verse 5 follows up by saying that for this reason, we must give all diligence to obey God and add all the spiritual disciplines to our already established faith. The word diligence means to earnestly strive after something. It is something we pursue with vigor and determination. Adding these things to our life must become a top priority.
Keep in mind that there is a balance that must be applied to the Christian life. If we try to do God’s work, we are just as much in error as if we sit idly and expect God to do our work. Some believe in error that God has done it all and therefore, we do nothing except wait for the end. If you study the scriptures, you will see that we are continuously taught to be diligent, apply ourselves, labor, do good works, persevere and many such commands throughout the New Testament. To fully explain this, we need more time than this brief explanation; however, what is important to realize is that there is a difference between our efforts and God’s efforts.
It is God who works through us to accomplish His good will. The specific purposes of our life in Christ belongs to God while preparation for our hearts belongs to each individual. Look at Proverbs 16:1
The preparations of the heart belong to man, But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.
It is your responsibility to prepare your heart to seek the Lord (2 Chronicles 12:14). It is your responsibility to put to death the deeds of the flesh (Romans 8:13). It is our responsibility to walk in the Spirit (Galatians 5:24). It is our responsibility to deny ourselves, take up our cross and follow Jesus (Luke 9:23-24). God has entrusted us to add spiritual disciplines to our lives (2 Peter 1) and it is also our responsibility to renew our minds daily (Romans 12:2). The responsibilities in scripture are clear – it is our responsibility to seek the Lord with all our heart and apply ourselves to the truth of scripture while it is God’s responsibility to work through us to complete His works. In modern Christianity, people either fall into the trap of lazy Christianity where no effort or holiness is expected or a works mentality where we suppose that we are doing things for God and committing ourselves to do what God has declared that He will do. We must find the right balance by applying our hearts to know Him deeply so that we can know what He has called us to do. If our lives are crowded with unholiness, we are the barrier to God’s work. If we are running around busily working for the Lord in ways that He has not ordained, we are also barriers to God’s work. Seek Him and listen to His voice and you will find the things of God and His will. This is explained in Colossians 1:9-10
9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God;
We are filled with the knowledge of His will when we have His wisdom and understanding.
Many fall into the trap of apathetic grace. We spend so much time focusing on the truth that salvation is not by works that we forget the equal truth that we are saved for good works. Good works do not provide salvation but we are saved for the purpose of good works. Let’s review a common passage in Ephesians 2:8-10
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
Verses 8 and 9 are frequently quoted but rarely do we hear verse 10. We are created in Christ Jesus for good works. God has already prepared our work before hand; therefore, we must seek His face to find the path He has already prepared. We do not need to make our own path or determine what works we will do. Rather than making our plans and presenting them to God, we seek God’s face and let Him reveal to us the plan that He has already established.
Some fall into the trap of apathetic grace. In error many believe that God has already done the work and we are just along for the ride. Jesus warned that even though the fields are full and the harvest is plentiful, it will be difficult to find laborers. Apathy is a sin. To be apathetic means to be indifferent or to live in idleness not caring about the purposes of God. The Bible teaches that apathy leads us into sin. Rehoboam is a good example of this. Rehoboam was the son of Solomon, the wisest man who lived. Look at 2 Chronicles 12:14
14 And he did evil, because he did not prepare his heart to seek the LORD.
Rehoboam did not prepare his heart to seek the Lord and therefore, fell into sin. When he took over as king, the people were unsure about whether to follow him or not. He had the opportunity to avoid civil war but acted foolishly instead. The wise men gave good advice but instead of listening to the elders who followed God, he took the advice of his peers and those who fed his pride. The result was that most of the kingdom was stripped from his reign.
We as Christians receive advice from all directions. How do we know the voice of God over the voice of deception? The Bible answers this in John 10:
4 "And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them; and the sheep follow him, for they know his voice. 5 "Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers."
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26 "But you do not believe, because you are not of My sheep, as I said to you. 27 "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 "And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.
If you belong to Christ, you will hear his voice. Why is it that so many now follow doctrines that are unscriptural and listen to every voice that comes into our churches today? I believe that there are two main reasons: one is that many who name the name of Christ are not His sheep. 87% of Americans claim to be a Christian yet only 33% of Americans believe the Bible was inspired by God and only 22% believe in absolute truth. This tells us that many within the church do not believe the Bible. Oddly enough, the statistics are worse among ministers:
7,441 Protestant pastors were asked if they believed that the Bible is the inspired, inerrant Word of God: 87% of Methodists said ‘no’. 95% of Episcopalians said ‘no’. 82% of Presbyterians said ‘no’. 67% of American Baptists said ‘no’. (Pulpit Helps, December 1987)
I had a seminary student tell me once that he was taught the Bible was not reliable but that it was important to preach to the congregation that it was. The rational is that if the congregation believe the Bible, they will be more committed and so inerrancy is more of a tool of manipulation than a true belief of many in the clergy. If someone does not believe the scriptures, they cannot know the One who breathed them to the apostles. Bad doctrine is the result of unbelief in the truth of scripture.
The second reason that I believe people do not recognize the voice of God is because they have grown so distant from Him that they can no longer distinguish between His voice and all the others competing for the minds of the people. Peer pressure is also a powerful tool to get believers to accept what they know is false. Have you ever heard a message or lesson that made you feel uneasy in your spirit? In most cases, this is the Holy Spirit testifying to us that error is being presented as truth. False teachers instruct church members to ignore discernment and will not tolerate comparison between their doctrine and the scriptures. If you feel disturbed by false teaching, perhaps you are the sheep that belongs to Jesus who flee from the voice of a stranger.
We must know Christ and recognize his voice. God will never reveal anything to a teacher, preacher or prophet that is in contradiction to what has already been delivered. For this reason, we must seek God through His word. We must commit ourselves to get into the word and apply ourselves to God’s truth. Look at these two passages:
Jeremiah 29:13 And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.
Deuteronomy 4:29 "But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
We seek God always based on truth – not experiential meditation or other unbiblical religious practices. We seek God based on how He has revealed Himself. We must be committed to diligently seek Him daily through knowing His voice (the word), through prayer, and through lifestyle obedience.
