How to seek the Lord

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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on March 30, 2015 at 6:57am

Jenny,

I would first start by encouraging the person to stay the course and to not give up.  The word  of God says in Philippians 1:6 "being confident of this, he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion ..." (NIV).

I would also point out that life in Christ is not a sprint, but rather like a marathon.  To be more specific it would be better to liken life in Christ  to a cross-country race where we face hills and various kinds of obstacles along the way. Parts of the course we experience smooth sailing and we make great strides, while at other times because of the terrain we will strain and labor to make progress. Thus, the journey of life is made up of many parts when put together these parts make the whole of life.

Paul,  under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit,  illustrates life as a race.  Paul tells  us the race of life  is one that requires preparation and will last a lifetime. The finish line is our home going, yet the path from start to finish will take many interesting twists and turns. One of the interesting things in this race is that we're competing against no one except ourselves.  We have many people running the same race with the same goal in front of them,  yet each is a single contestant in their own division seeking the prize that only they can receive. I am running the race in the "LT" division and you are running the race in the "Jenny" division. Therefore, since we are on the same course and not competing against another we are able to truly encourage others to finish the race by helping them overcome their obstacles as we trust others will help us along the way overcome ours. In the end it is God's work to finish, a work He will finish.

There 5 things that come to mind regarding preparing and staying the course. You have mentioned two. Those two are 1) Reading God's Word, which is critical, but I encourage people to take the time to also go deeper and study God's Word. 2) Prayer, which must include taking time to sit silently before the Lord seeking Him to speak. This is an art (if I may use that term). Most often when we start seeking to listen to and for the Lord our minds are so cluttered that all we hear is the culminations of our personal thoughts, the things going on in our lives, what we must do tomorrow, etc... Over time if we practice this sitting quietly before the Lord and will continue to seek to silence those thoughts we will start to experience a connection with God in prayer that is powerful and one that draws us back into His presence again and again. Again, recognizing that this takes time, and most are unwilling to invest that kind of time and effort.

The other three areas are 1) Connecting with God's people. Though the race is a singular race called my life we are part of a bigger group of people called the body of Christ. There is a uniqueness to us and at the same time we are part of a greater whole. The are many ways for us to connect with God's children ... here on AAG TheNET is one such example, but I always encourage people to be involved in a local fellowship, because I believe that is what God instructs us to do. I do recognize that there are reasons that some are unable, but will leave that alone to the exception of having made note of it here. 4) Demonstrating faith. Do we trust God to do what He has said He will do? Here we recognize that faith is multifaceted and not all are at the same level of faith in every category. The comment is not implying a perfect faith, nor condemning for a weakness in one's faith, but rather to acknowledge the goal is to be able to trust God and take Him at His Word. 5) Obedience to God's Word. Are we seeking to live to please God or self. If we replace God's will with our own will we will greatly retard the work of God in our lives. As a parent I do not ignore my children's disobedience and bless them when they disobey. We cannot expect God, our heavenly Father, to do otherwise either. At the same time when my children disobey they do not cease to be my children ...

Regarding, seeing what is happening. Often, in my experience, people are so focused on the big events that they miss the everyday engagement with God as He works in even what we call the small parts of our lives. When we look at the Word of God and see people like Jeremiah, David and Paul we need to realize that what is recorded in Scripture often is the highlights that God gives us, but these individuals did not walk around seeing what we call the great things every day every moment ... they saw God in all things as Paul points out in Romans 8:28. We need to look for God in the everyday events of life trusting He is in control all of the time. I will add this as an important encouragement ... As a child of God we know that God lives in us. As we walk this path called life He is own that journey with us every step of the way ... including what appears to be the bad times.

Practical tip: Create a method (3x5 cards, computer file, etc ...) where you log times in your life where you know or believe God interacted or moved. Over time you will begin to build a fairly large file that you will be able to look back on and see where the hand of God was moving in your life. This does two wonderful things. 1) It does not rely on our memories, we have recorded it. 2) In the midst of a future storm we can be reassured by these past movements of God that this storm to shall pass and we shall be OK, because God has proved Himself faithful over and over (special note: please know that this does not mean that every outcome was the one we expected, but rather we can look back and know that God was a t work and we endured as He led us through that storm).

Sorry for the length and hope that helps at least some.

Lord Bless,

LT

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Permalink Reply by Jenny on March 30, 2015 at 12:20pm

This is very helpful. 

I like the cross-country race analogy, imagining the various terrain encountered along the way. 

Thankyou

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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on March 30, 2015 at 12:39pm

You are welcome.

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Permalink Reply by Jenny on March 30, 2015 at 4:29pm

"Most often when we start seeking to listen to and for the Lord our minds are so cluttered that all we hear is the culminations of our personal thoughts, the things going on in our lives, what we must do tomorrow, etc... Over time if we practice this sitting quietly before the Lord and will continue to seek to silence those thoughts we will start to experience a connection with God in prayer that is powerful and one that draws us back into His presence again and again. "

This sounds great, and I'd like to spend more time listening to God in prayer rather than just talking to Him. 

I've heard that God only speaks to us through His word, so that when we're in prayer, if we want to hear from Him, we have to open the bible. 

Any thoughts on this?

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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on March 30, 2015 at 4:54pm

I believe God uses various methods to speak to us. His Word is the anvil upon which all such communications must be tested. If what we think is God speaking, whether in prayer to our minds, through other people, through our circumstances, etc, it must always align with God's Word. There is never a contradiction between an action (which can include God speaking to our minds) that God takes and what His Word says.

Lord Bless,

LT

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Permalink Reply by Jenny on March 30, 2015 at 4:58pm

Makes sense, thanks. 

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Permalink Reply by Elijah Callands on April 11, 2015 at 8:39pm

Yup yup helps me. Going this a while yet anyways feel kinda a new Believer, I like the journaling idea. My memories help but the journal accounts better. God is amazing, this part of the course had been the absolute strangest and best so far.
Getting past the need for instant gratification helps me as the grown up, also gives the kid in me hunger to figure this all out

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Permalink Reply by Tammy on April 11, 2015 at 9:45pm

I pray you continue your zeal of learning Him more & growing in Him as well.

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