I have been thinking a lot about what it means to seek the Lord. We know we are supposed to do it and may have a general idea of what that means. But as I look at my own life, I am beginning to understand that my general idea of what it means to seek the Lord isn’t really causing me to truly seek Him the way I should.
I am working on a series about this topic, but I wanted to take some time today to reflect on what Scripture says about it, and how the world around us distracts us from it.
Matthew 6:33 says,
But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.
In this section of Matthew, Jesus is addressing anxiety, telling His listeners then, and us now, not to be anxious about our lives or anything in it because our heavenly Father cares for us and will provide what we need. Instead of being anxious about life, Jesus presents the only alternative – to seek Him first. This means that God’s sovereign reign and His ways are to be our primary concern – not what we think we are missing out on in this life.
Jeremiah 29:13 says,
You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
We are not to simply seek to know God intellectually through head knowledge, but we are to seek Him – who He is, His attributes – with all our heart.
Psalm 27:8 says,
You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says to you, “Your face, LORD, do I seek.”
We tend to seek blessings from God, rather than seeking Him as the Giver of every good thing, and the source of everything good and right and true.
These Scriptures are just a glimpse of what the Bible says about seeking the Lord. It is to be a lifelong pursuit to desire to know Him more deeply. He is a God who desires to be known by His people, to be honored, loved, and glorified by those whom He saves. We exist for His glory – and how can we glorify and love the One whom we do not know?
The world around us encourages us to seek wealth, security, comfort, entertainment, prominence, attention, and the list goes on. We are bombarded with curated content, constant drama, and endless advertisements. We can become distracted by the things of this life. It is a daily (and often hourly) battle most of the time.
But God calls us to more. He calls us to fix our eyes on Him – the eternal One – and to remember that our lives have been purchased by the blood of His Son. He calls us to seek Him as the treasure, to set our hearts and minds on our future glory with Him. He calls us to not root our hearts and seek our treasures in earthly things that are temporary, but to firmly root ourselves in the truth of who He is.
I will go into more detail on what this looks like practically in my upcoming series, as well as where it leads us as we dive deeper into seeking Him. But for now, let us all prayerfully consider what it looks like in our own lives to truly seek Him. Let us pray for clarity, conviction, and a desire to know Him deeper and to grow in our love for Him as our Creator, Sustainer, Provider, and King.