Seek Me

On our family room wall we have a beautiful painting with the words of Jeremiah 29:11 painted on it. For years this has been one of my favorite bible verses and has strengthened me with God's promise through many difficult times. It is a promise that I pray over my children with the hope that these words will carry them throughout their life as they make choices without me by their side. It is a reminder to them that He has a plan for their lives. Jeremiah 29:11 says, "For I know the plans I have for you,  declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Praise God! But, the problem is I have focused on that verse for so long that I haven't read on. I have stopped at verse 11.  I didn't read on.

We read in verse 12, "Then YOU will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. YOU will seek me and find me when YOU seek me with ALL YOUR heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord, and bring you back from captivity."

Image from TodaysBibleVerse.com

 

The Lord has not forgotten His people. The problem is we forget Him every day. In our hurry to get out the door and begin we diminish the importance of SEEKING Him. I will be the first to admit that many days I find myself spending time with Him in the midst of my morning commute! My time spent with Him on those mornings make for a pretty embarrassing transcript.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Thank you for this day! Thank you for.....

.....did I turn off the coffee pot? Do the kids have their coats? I need to stop by the bank.

then a voice from the back seat, "Mama..RED LIGHT!!!"

I love the fact that I serve a Lord who I can communicate with at all times but giving Him what is left of my attention is not seeking Him. As a matter of fact I am pretty sure as Francis Chan says, it offends Him. I think I would lose all of my friends quickly if every time we spoke on the phone I said, "Hello...How are you?" but never gave them a chance to speak and certainly did not even try to hear what they were saying. Worse yet...what if I hung up on them on many of our conversations. You know the prayers where you are laying in bed at night and fall asleep before you reach the end or even Amen? I do! 

My list of reasons why I frequently have missed spending time with Him are long. I might as well of had roosters as children because they are up announcing the sunrise every morning  long before the sun thinks of appearing in the sky! That and the fact that they don't always sleep through the night tends to make me more prone to those interrupted prayers at bedtime that end with ZZZZZ instead of Amen! It makes setting my alarm for an unreasonable hour in the morning even more painful to do. But the truth is when I don't SEEK HIM how can I expect to be able to recognize the plans He has to prosper me? 

Jeremiah 29:11 receives a lot of attention and for good reason. But, read on. Are you captive to your busy day? Your distracted thoughts? Your to do list? Your job? Your children? He says, "Seek Me."