Seeking.
It's the Core of the Christian.
We're seekers; we've realized how misplaced we are in the world. Our home is not a place filled with material gain, pleasure, desire, and other carnal pursuits. The Christian has heard the calling God made towards His people and from that time onward seeks after that calling.
But have you ever considered Seeking to actually be a Spiritual Discipline?
A discipline is simply any activity, exercise, or regiment that develops or improves a skill (Training).
I'm teaching on Spiritual Disciplines at Church and we've started at places that I believe have surprised many people-- in fact the first Discipline is that of Repentance. We covered it last week. This week is on to Seeking.
See, seeking is a discipline because it is a skill that, unless developed, will utterly stop the Christian from going forward as a Christian. No one would suggest that we have already attained to perfection, and if they did they would either be blind or a fool-- or both.
No, but as Paul said "
For we through the Spirit, by faith, are waiting for the hope of righteousness." (Gal 5:5). Righteousness we hope for..... we certainly lack it but we eagerly await it!
As much as we are eagerly waiting for it, because we have been renewed in our life and reborn into a new life so too do we seek after all that is of this new life; like a toddler eagerly tries to grow up, so too do we try to "grow" spiritually!
"
Therefore if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth" (Col 3:1,2)
Like an Athlete running a race, we cannot develop this skill unless we train; unless we teach ourselves to look strait ahead. We cannot look backwards or we will trip and fall. We cannot look side to side or we will stray off course and certainly not make the finish line!
So How do we seek and become seekers? How is this discipline developed?
Let me share with you the testimony of how God taught me to seek after him.
For so many years I would bend down on one knee before God and pray to him "Save me from my sin! Help me be more like you!" In utter sincerity I prayed that prayer, and ones just like it, throughout all of Jr/Sr High and early College. Perhaps I was expecting God to remove the desire to sin from me through a miracle-- but God answered in his own and infinitely better way!
He looked down and saw a man, blind and dumb, earnestly and desperately trying to stumble his way to Him-- God looked down with Grace and Mercy on me!
So God layed down upon me the conviction that brought me to learn Repentance; even to this day!
Once readied he put upon me to learn to Seek Him.
He Taught me to seek-- He showed me that to be a seeker means to change your mindset. To take your mindset off of "_______" and place it on the things that we are to seek after (those things that are pure and of God).
I learned to let go of the world.
He Taught me and I learned that after I came home from school and finished studying, I must not go play Poker with my friends, or video games, or tennis, or my violin. Instead He taught that I must open up the Scriptures and search out the Heart of God. Get down on one knee again and seek out the face of God.
And again, He had more to teach me so that not only would I seek... but I would
become a seeker.
So again He Taught me, and I learned that while I was driving I could seek His face in prayer; while I was walking to class on campus I could seek to understand His grace when I saw the student sitting alone, or the student crying in the corner, or the student with their heads in their hands completely overcome with worry-- in these times, I could seek the grace and love of God in "
whatever you do for the least of these" (Matt 25:40).
Again I learned that even while serving as a waiter at IHOP I could seek God right there. With my co-workers each having a prison record longer than the combined resume of both my educational and professional background, I could seek out the heart of God by upholding this "NEW CREATION" that he has transformed me into and becoming a servant to all, just as Christ served all.
So, to all these things God taught to me the Spiritual Discipline of Seeking; even now I learn these things. And so as I sought so God revealed to me even more about seeking;
"So I will stretch our My hand... I will cut off the remnant of Baal from this place, and the names of the idolatrous priests along with the priests. And those who bow down on the housetops to the host of heaven, and those who bow down and swear to the Lord and yet swear by Milcom... and those who have turned back from following the Lord, and Those who have NOT SOUGHT the Lord or inquired of him." Zeph 1:4-6
"Gather yourselves together, yes, gather, O nation without shame, Before the decree takes effect........ Before the burning anger of the Lord comes upon you... Seek the Lord, All you humble of the earth Who have carried out His ordinances; Seek righteousness, seek humility, Perhaps you will be hidden in the day of the Lord's Anger" Zeph 2:1-3
I Learned, therefore, to Seek the Lord! While He still looks down with Grace and Mercy-- for we know that the Lord is Long-suffering in His patience because He does not desire that anyone be lost but that all would come (SEEK) to repentance!
Assuredly a day is approaching when the Lords anger will not be suppressed-- when that day of wrath comes, only those who have sought the Lord shall be hidden from the terrors of that day.
We are afforded this great opportunity to Seek God.... in a time when he may still be found by us.... only as a result of Gods Long suffering patience; because of His everlasting Kindness we may, right now, seek Him.
Shall we squander this time afforded to us?
No! But learn to seek!
This also God has revealed to me; to Seek God is to give up on the ties we have to the World. The longer we hold onto those ties, the harder it is to Seek after God. If a runner is tied down to the ground, he cannot go very far-- only as far as those roaps will let him-- and so the bondages that tie us to this earth will allow us to go only as far as repentance; which frees us from them, if only we do not put them back on!
So this last thing God has revealed to me about Seeking: it is not about being perfect. It's about seeking it. It's not about never stumbling-- it's about getting back up, more resolved than last, to go forward towards Christ.
In all sincerity I pray you take up the Spiritual Discipline of Seeking and learn to become a Seeker-- just as Jesus made possible for us!
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