The Overwhelming Importance of Diligently and Sincerely Seeking God, if One Wants to Live the Abundant Life!

08 Mar 2025 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Today’s Scrip-Bit   8 March 2025   Deuteronomy 4:29.

Deuteronomy 4:29.       ‘But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him, with all thy heart and with all thy soul.’

And it’s another sunshiny, clear, dry day in my neck of the woods, although some snow fell during the midnight hours. But that’s all gone now. So, we can be out and about frolicking on this lazy-day Saturday, or simply stay inside, and enjoy the comforts of home, with the added joy of knowing that it’s beautiful outside. (smile) And to ramp up our joy even further, let’s offer up our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer, with all sincerity and truth. 

As one strong voice: ‘Lord, I want to be with You now. Please slow my thoughts and quiet my soul. Let my muscles relax, my breath deepen. You are here with me – Your peace and LOVE are present. I marvel to think You can’t be contained, that Your LOVE both surrounds and fills me. Thank You for this tenderness, Lord. I praise You for Your unceasing nearness. Increase my awareness of You today, that I may know You all the more. Amen!’ 

And there’s nothing more pleasant or desirous than having God’s peace and presence increased in our souls! And it’s assured when we pray sincere prayers like those, because our God LOVES nothing more than to hear us asking Him to come deeper and more plentiful into our lives, spirits and souls. For that’s why He made us; to have good and strong communion with us; to shower His LOVE on us, and receive our LOVE in return. 

Now that’s why there are so many scriptures in the Lord’s Word about seeking Him. So, let’s check out a few today nuh, starting with this one from Jeremiah that we all know. ‘Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto (listen to) you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye search for me with all your heart.’ (Jer. 29:12-13) It could not be any clearer or more straightforward than that my fellow believers! 

And, earlier on, Moses told the Israelites the very same thing when cautioning them about repentance of sin. ‘But if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him, with all thy heart and with all thy soul.’ (Deut. 4:29) Then Isaiah, in his reminder that God abundantly pardons, tells his people: ‘Seek the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon.’ (Is. 55: 6-7) 

Oh my people, that is exactly what our evil and ungodly world desperately needs RIGHT NOW! A return to God and acceptance of all the good things He has to offer. As Bruh David so sincerely and truly puts it in Psalm 103: ‘Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits: Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; Who redeemeth thy life from destruction; who crowneth thee with LOVINGKINDNESS and tender mercies. Who satisfieth thy mouth with good things; so that thy youth is renewed like the eagle’s.’ (Ps. 103:2-5) 

Wow mih bredrin! Who wouldn’t want all those wonderful benefits eh? Well, they are readily available by simply turning to the Lord God in repentance and becoming the new man that requires, with the awesome help of His Holy Spirit. And if you’re wanting more scripture about getting good things from God, listen to these two nuh. The first from Isaiah, from that scripture on God’s continual strength and unsearchable understanding: ‘But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.’ (Is. 40:31) 

We all know it, but do we practice it? Now that’s another quandary, or difficult position in which we find ourselves; there’s something that we want, but apparently are not willing to do what it takes to get it. The same goes for this scripture from Psalm 37, titled Trust in the Lord. Bruh David writes: ‘Trust in the Lord, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed (feed on his faithfulness). Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Commit thy way unto the Lord; trust also in him, and he shall bring it to pass.’ (Ps. 37:3-5) 

And that’s only a few of the things we can do to get the desires of our heart from God! So who’s to blame if we don’t get them eh? No one else but us! But let’s get back to some more modern scriptures that blatantly tell us to seek the Lord. Here’s this one from James, where he admonishes us: ‘Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh (near) to God, and he will draw nigh (near) to you. Cleanse your hands ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded….Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.’ (James 4:7-8, 10) 

And Peter echoes the same sentiments: ‘Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.’ (1 Pet. 6-7) And we spoke about that early on when we said that God created us to LOVE us, and be LOVED in return. That’s because He cares the whole world about us. Why else would He send His Son to earth to die for our sins eh? The basic reason was LOVE for his sinful, disobedient creation, as Jesus so eloquently puts it. ‘For God so LOVED the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.’ (John 3:16) 

That’s as good as it gets my fellow saints, and why Jesus therefore strongly advised us; ‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.’ (Matt. 6:33) The long and short of the story then is we have all the information and tools before us, it’s our choice how we choose to use them. But please, please hear this last admonition from the scriptures; where Moses tells the Israelites as they are preparing to enter the Promised Land. ‘I call heaven and earth to record (witness) this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.’ (Deut. 30:19) 

I offer this same admonition to us today my people. Why? ‘Because the quality of your life isn’t determined as much by the breaks that you get, as its determined by the choices that you make.’ Much LOVE!

…one can only find God….when one seeks Him diligently and sincerely…

Hear our podcast at https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/randy-obrien

Today’s Scrip-Bit   15 July 2023 Jeremiah 29:13.

15 Jul 2023 Leave a comment

by randyobrien50 in Christian Thoughts and Inspiration., Daily Devotion, Daily Inspiration, Inspirational Living, Spiritual Living Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Jeremiah 29:13.       And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.

And it’s a cool, cloudy morning, with rain in the offing, but it’s the perfect kind of atmosphere for a lazy-day Saturday my bredrin! Where you don’t need to do anything or go anywhere, but just relax and laze some time away in idle but not evil thinking. (smile) Hopefully though, within that lazy time, we will communicate with our heavenly Father, for although doing nothing is sometimes an option, disregarding Him, is never one! 

And if there’s one thing our heavenly likes better than one on one communication is corporate worship, because it shows Him that there is unity in the body of Christ, and with the general state of the world, that most certainly warms the cockles of His heart. So, let’s communicate with Him right now through our Lazy-Day Saturday Prayer. 

As one sincere voice: ‘Lord, I want to be with You now. Please slow my thoughts and quiet my soul. Let my muscles relax, my breath deepen. You are here with me – Your peace and LOVE are present. I marvel to think You can’t be contained, that Your LOVE both surrounds and fills me. Thank You for this tenderness, Lord. I praise You for Your unceasing nearness. Increase my awareness of You today, that I may know You all the more. Amen!’ 

Oh my people, that prayer never ceases to touch me! I guess because it brings home to me the awesome presence and wonder of our great God spiritually interacting with us with amazing compassion and kindness as we humble ourselves and ask for His grace and mercy. Wow! I hope we realize what an awesome and amazing God we serve, one full of LOVE and tenderness towards His most precious but disobedient creation! 

Yes friends, when you truly seek to know the Lord, you’ll be surprised at the unusual and unexpected places you’ll find Him, see His unerring hand at work. It’ll be so unnatural that you’ll know without a doubt that it’s the hand of God moving in your life! Likewise with little things that will suddenly jump out at you. In the greater scheme of life, they’ll be small and insignificant, but somehow or the other they will make a big impact on you, opening your eyes to miraculous and mysterious ways in which our God moves. 

And one of the reasons I believe we don’t see out God more, or appreciate Him more, is because we tend to look for Him in the big things of life. However, He is more present and available, easier seen in the li’l, seemingly unimportant, everyday aspects of life. And a lazy-day Saturday is just the time to look for Him, to seek Him in all the most unusual and unexpected places. 

Remember what Moses said to the Israelites about repentance and seeking the Lord. ‘But if from thence (their disobedience and idol worship) thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” (Deut. 4:29) And many years later, on the Lord’s behalf, Jeremiah gave the Israelites the same warning, or solution for their problems during their captivity in Babylon. 

‘But I know the thoughts that I have toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil (calamity), to give you an expected end (a future and a hope). Then ye shall call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto (listen to) you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart. And I will be found of you, saith the Lord…’ (Jer. 29:11-14) 

Ah friends, the message is still the same today. When we are in distress, when problems overwhelm us, or we’re simply lonely or aimless, whatever the situation, seeking God with our whole hearts is the wisest decision we can make! And how do we seek God with our whole hearts? One commentary gives us this answer: ‘When Jesus gave His life for us on that cross, when God prioritized our salvation above everything else, it wasn’t for us to make Him a side thought. But for us to surrender our lives to Him and embrace the one He has for us. This is how we seek God with our whole heart.’ 

And this other commentary encourages us: ‘God is a God hearing prayer; he listens to the requests of his people, and answers them in his own time and way; which is no small encouragement to pray unto him.’ That’s for sure! If He is our Creator, our Provider, our Heavenly Father and controls all that happens in our lives, it’s only logical and sensible that we need to seek Him out for help in our topsy-turvy lives. 

Seeking and searching are ever so important in our Christian faith my brethren. Jesus set the stage for that when He warned: ‘But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.’ (Matt. 6:33) Then He followed it up by later declaring (yesss!!!) ‘Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.’ (Matt. 7:7-8) 

That undoubtedly means that Christians should always be asking, seeking and knocking, looking for the truth in all situations, as well as seeking to open the hearts of others so that they too can know Jesus and seek and serve Him with their whole hearts. Oh my fellow saints, our Christian life is supposed to be one of action, always moving along a path that leads to Jesus, doing our best to personally seek and serve Him, as well as spread the good news of His gospel to the many who have never heard it. 

And we can only do that successfully if we are united, united as one church, one body of Christ. So, let’s begin today by seeking unity amongst ourselves nuh, let’s ask for it, knock on closed doors for it. Let’s desire and actively pursue a unity that will propel Christ’s church to the forefront of this world, its rightful place! Much LOVE!

…to seek…to search…to find…that is the Christian’s duty… 

 Hear our podcast at https://open.spotify.com/show/3aVfqIC1CqwGybISs9dZ