We all know how difficult it is to find something that we’re not really looking for. Kind of like the young boy who’s father tells him to go look in the shed and find the other rake to help him rake the leaves. Well, soon the boy comes back, “I couldn’t find it.” So, the father goes to the shed and there is the rake in plain sight. Obviously, the young boy didn’t look very hard, because he didn’t want to rake leaves.
The same is true with many people as far as experiencing God working in their lives. The Bible plainly tells us how to KNOW God and what we have to do to truly follow Him. And many of us get under conviction about getting our lives right with Him or we read a book or hear a person talk about how awesome and amazing a life with God at the center of it is, and so we say “Okay, I’m going to do this…” And after a week or so, we give up trying to find God or give our lives to Him. We excuse ourselves with “It’s too difficult.” Or, “I tried, but it doesn’t work.” When in reality we never really gave it our best shot.
The Bible reminds us in Hebrews 11:6, “And 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 seek Him.” If we REALLY want to know God and follow Him, we HAVE to give Him all or our lives and TRULY seek Him. It doesn’t work if we just half-way give it a few tries or hope things in our lives will automatically and instantly change. We have to have FAITH in Him and we have to seek Him with ALL we have.
Jeremiah 29:13 says, “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” Notice it says, “with ALL your heart”. We can’t just try seeking God for a day or two and think that it doesn’t work. We have to give it EVERYTHING we’ve got.
1 Chronicles 16:11 urges us, “Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face continually.” When we seek Him and FIND Him, oh the joy that comes to our soul. It’s WELL worth the effort it takes, but we’ve got to give it our ALL. Seeking God isn’t something that we can do on the side like a stamp collection hobby – it MUST be with ALL of our HEARTS!