What are you Seeking?

One of my favorite verses in the bible is Jeremiah 29:13. It says this, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” I love the promise that God gives in this verse that he can be found. It gives me so much hope and inspires me to continue to chase after him. It reminds me that he is not trying to hide from us. In fact, he wants to be found!

But there is a second part to that verse that we so often overlook.

“When you seek me with all your heart.”

“With all your heart”...

As in the whole thing.

For most of us, that is the problem. If we are honest, there are a lot of competing interests for our heart and Jesus doesn’t always get the whole thing. The reality is that life is busy and the demands on our time are endless. Kids, school, soccer games, church on Sunday, work and if we are lucky, a dinner that didn’t come from McDonalds. We can blink and a month has gone by.

In that blink of an eye, it is possible to forsake the most important things for lesser tasks. We trade doing for being...accomplishing for stillness. Then, as life happens, a few more months go by and we have given our hearts over to things that will become a problem in the long run. Jesus calls these things idols...simply put, anything that is in a higher place in our life than Him. Money, success, family status, personal appearances, possessions; these are the obvious ones. But they are rarely the actual idol that we have given ourselves over. Usually, there is something much deeper going on because we know that this stuff won’t ultimately satisfy. What we are really searching for is joy, happiness and peace. We just search for it in the wrong places.

This truth begs a deep question, the type that can really mess with you. What are you seeking? Think about that question, sit with it for a moment. We are all seeking something. What are you seeking? 

In my life, it has quickly become the most important question. For too many years, my life was about the approval of others. I would have never said it that way (mostly, because I couldn’t articulate it). Instead, I would simply buy stuff I didn’t need, drive the right car, hang around the right people or turn conversations just the right way to make sure I looked successful. For years I believed the lie that if I was accomplished and successful, others would love me...they would approve of me. I was seeking the approval and love that only Jesus can give but was simply looking for it in the wrong places. Unfortunately, I had years of bad habits and dozens of lies I had believed. It took something radical to change this in my life. But I was desperate and desperate people do radical things.

I decided to be honest about my life, to wake up and be intentional about what I was actually chasing after. Then I gave those things over to Jesus and allowed him to enter into the process. The beautiful thing is that he met me right where I was. As I stripped out the noise in my life, he began to transform me into the man he designed me to be. When I fully gave him my heart, I found him. This is when I began to know him, rather than know about him.

His promise is true, “if you seek me, you will find me - if you seek me with all your heart.” The best part is that when we find him, we get all of the other things we are chasing after too. As C.S. Lewis says at the end of Mere Christianity, “look for Christ and you will find him and with Him everything else thrown in.” Jesus holds everything we are looking for - all the peace, joy and purpose we are seeking. And our true identity too. We just have to seek him with our whole heart.

At Seek Well, we believe that this requires an intentional rhythm. We have to live our life on purpose and take control of the balance in our lives, creating space to be still and listen to the King. It is in the space when Jesus can speak to the deepest parts of our souls and transform us. That is how we find him.

So the question is, what are you seeking? Take 30 minutes this week and turn off the noise. Sit with this prompt and be honest with yourself. If you dare, invite Jesus into this moment and ask Him what he thinks. I’ll bet he has a lot to say.