A Quick Game of Hide and Seek
Deuteronomy 4:29 “If you seek God, your God, you’ll be able to find Him, if you’re serious, looking for Him with all your heart and soul…”
God doesn’t play mindless games with us. “If you’d just look harder….” “If you’d just attend church more often…” ”If you’d cry more….” He is pretty clear in this verse that a singular-focused, unrelenting search for Him nets a result of His attention. Granted, we have to DO something, we have to play a role: the serious seeking in prayer for His presence. But He’s not a God afar off; He’s really close and connected, waiting to commune with us, to guide, us comfort us, display yet another amazing dose of His unexplainable, unconditional love to us. Not sure why I try to seek every other resource I have before seeking the key Player in the game of life!
The Wrong Kind of Wandering
Deuteronomy 4:9 “…Stay alert. Keep close watch over yourselves. Don’t forget anything of what you’ve seen. Don’t let your heart wander off. Stay vigilant….”
It’s so easy to let your guard down. Obstacles to alertness/vigilance are busyness, complacency, pride, improper focus on others, fatigue, etc. So we are swimming upstream to stay battle-ready in this journey of serving God day-in and day-out. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, as they say. Alertness means examining myself for any weeds growing through the cracks in my heart, any strongholds starting to get a grip, any “idols” that are taking more priority over my love for God. While it’s fun to take the road less traveled or explore new adventures, the one kind of wandering we must never do is heart-wandering away from our Lord and Savior into any destination apart from Him. Fellow soldiers, let’s stay sharp today!