What is your “first seeking?” Where do you turn first when trouble comes? When you’ve had a bad day? When you’re discouraged, or tired, when you’re sick or depressed, when you feel hopeless or disillusioned or cynical or overwhelmed or dry? What gets honored as the steering wheel and what gets treated as the spare tire? What is your “first seeking?"
“’And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who diligently seek him’ (Heb.11:6). We read this verse and tend to see “you don’t have enough faith” – but what this verse is saying is that a person wouldn’t seek God unless they had faith – they wouldn’t seek God unless they believed some basic things, like the fact of His existence and that coming to Him would make a measurable difference in their lives, for the better.
Not to be overly basic, but here’s what I get out of this verse. 1) You don’t have to muster up some “Apostle-like” measure of faith before God will be pleased with you. If you have faith enough to come to Him with your needs, with your pain, with your praise, with your questions, knowing that He is able (has the power) to do something with each, it’s faith enough.
2) We have here an amazing promise – that when we diligently seek after God, He rewards us for it! What are the rewards? Here are just a few mentioned in the Bible: “perfect peace”/ emotional stability (Isaiah 26:3), physical benefits/ “health to your body” (Prov. 3:5-8), clothes, food, drink (Matt. 6:31-33), a mature faith (James 1:2-4). Let me briefly address this last one as an example.
Christian Maturity is not something we accomplish, but it is the result of something we are to do. We don’t achieve our own sanctification—that would be works – and the Bible tells us that the grace that saved us is the same grace that sanctifies us (Titus 1:11,12) – it’s God’s doing; The Holy Spirit is responsible for teaching and enabling our spirits to learn each lesson of spiritual maturity – but we have a responsibility to diligently seek God. The word to encourage you today is that when you set your life to purposefully seeking God, He promises to reward you – with peace, with hope, with health, with discovery. “Seek, and you will find…” What have you discovered about God lately? He’s waiting to reward you.
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