When complacency and apathy enter people’s spiritual life, they move from participants to spectators. They become consumers instead of engaged shared producers in the ongoing growth of the community. A sense of entitlement enters the relational dynamic where the guiding question is, “What have you done for me lately?”
In our last devotion we discussed calling out to God and praying as an act based in God’s faithfulness to hear our prayers. We call out and pray because we know that God is listening and seeks to engage us in our times of prayer. The invitation broadens in Jeremiah 29 when the Lord states in verse 13 and the beginning of verse 14, “’You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the Lord.”
As a parent, I have witnessed the “I’m looking for something” mentality of children. You know, the one where the child enters their room to find something that is lost, stands in the middle of the room, and returns saying, “I didn’t find it.” The process is repeated time and again to no avail of finding what is lost. On several occasions, I have gone to the room and found the lost item in short notice because I was willing to seek it instead of standing in one place hoping it would magically appear. I sense our seeking the Lord is like the child who stands in the middle of the room where we go to church on Sunday morning as an act, and only act, of seeking the Lord throughout the week. When we feel a distance from the Lord, we begin to question the pastor, the music, and the fellow worshipers because we are no longer sensing the Lord’s presence with us.
The Lord’s invitation is for us to actively seek Him each day. A seeking that desires a deeper relationship, a greater growth, and a sense of the Holy Spirit walking with us through each experience of the day. When we seek the Lord, we discover our God is not one who is hiding from us or trying to keep from being found. The Lord promises, “I will be found by you.”
Jesus picks up on this invitation to seek when in the Sermon on the Mount he teaches, “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). We are invited to live our lives in a way of seeking, where we are participants in our regular growth and recognize our dependency upon God. Our seeking needs to go beyond a once-per-week worship experience to a lifestyle where we are seeking the Lord and the Kingdom of God. We trust that when we seek the Lord with our whole heart, we will find the Lord. We will not be groping in the darkness trying to find where God is hidden because our God wants us to find Him.
How is your life seeking the Lord? Do you seek the Lord as a daily experience? How do you seek the Lord? Bible Study? Prayer? Journaling? Singing? Fellowship? Silence? Solitude? Each of these options and more place us in a posture where we are actively seeking the Lord. There is a need for us to battle our complacency and apathy with a more active seeking each day. We know the God who promises to hear our prayers is the same God who promises we will find Him when we seek Him.
Prayer: Lord, break the power of complacency and apathy in me when I lose my fervor to seek you. Forgive me for those times that I limit my seeking to one day/one hour per week. Give me a passion to seek you each day. In Jesus’ name. Amen.