Successfully Setting Up to Seek God
By Cheryl Monaco
Who do you go to first when you encounter struggles or are seeking advice? I was reading a devotion the other day where the writer says: “I felt like God metaphorically tapped me on the shoulder and asked me why I wasn’t coming to Him with my struggles. I stammered and strutted and tried to make excuses. When He and I sifted through all the junk, I saw what had kept me from running to Him. I took all my concerns to those whom I know best…It turns out God wasn’t one of those I was most comfortable with because I hadn’t been taking the time to get to know Him. Ouch!”
Getting to know God better, takes time and effort, just as it does to get to know our friends and spouse better. 2 Chronicles 19:3 (NIV) says “There is, however, some good in you, for you have rid the land of the Asherah poles and HAVE SET YOUR HEART ON SEEKING GOD.”
How do we set our heart on seeking God? When we are seeking something, we are looking for it. The more value we place on that for which we are searching, the harder we look and the more time we spend searching. If we have lost an insignificant item, we won’t spend much time looking for it. If we lose our car keys and need to get to work, we will look until we find those keys! This takes time and effort. It is imperative that we set apart time to get to know God. The only way we get to know Him is to spend time reading the Bible, Praying and Worshipping.
When we purchase a smart phone, one of the first things we need to do is to input our “Settings”. We determine how our smart phone will receive information and which information we want to be notified about. Our relationship with God isn’t much different from that. It is our decision to establish those settings.
Some of those settings are helpful ways of thinking about our relationship with God:
Airplane Mode: Are we going through life in airplane mode? Are we going through life where no one can speak into our lives? Do we feel like we are fine and don’t need to listen to God or advice from our friends? Have we shut everyone off?
Wi-Fi: Who is our source of guidance? Is it God’s Word? Is it people we respect whose lives have shown Godly fruit? Or is it the latest craze of self-help books or a superstar we admire?
Bluetooth: Bluetooth describes how computers and mobile devices speak to each other. Is your Bluetooth on and hooked up to God? Is your antenna up so that you can hear what God is telling you?
Personal Hotspot: When we find ourselves in an area where we can’t get Wi-Fi (our source of guidance), we have the option to use another device as our “Hot Spot” in order to be connected. Do we have other things in place to help us when we feel like we can’t hear what God is saying? Are you in community groups? Are you spending time at church?
Notifications: What Apps are you allowing to “ping” you with notifications? What are you allowing to stop you and make you look and listen? Are they positive?
The good thing about the settings on a phone is that they can always be changed. It just takes a decision on our part to make that change. The same goes with our decisions in “setting our hearts to seek God”. It takes a decision on our part. Value what you are seeking (an amazing relationship with Almighty God) and take the time to get to know the Creator of the Earth. Make sure He is the one we know best and that He is the one we seek FIRST for everything in life. This sets us up for success!