Seeker

It's Monday again.  The day most people dread.  Personally, I like Monday, it's kind of a breather day from the busyness of Sunday.  While Sunday is usually a totally rockin' awesome day, it's also the day that completely wipes me out!  So I got up really early this morning, possibly the result of going to bed "early" (10:55 is early for me) and I've been mulling over some things.  A selah moment if you will.    Over the years this blog has kind of turned corners, done flip-flops, been funny, been sad and everything in between.  I waffle between just sharing my crazy, zany, wonderful life and being too educating (not because I'm so super smart but in terms of info overload).  Bear with me, I'm still on a path to finding balance in blogging.  But there is one thing thing that I want this blog to be more than anything else~real.  I want it to be real and up to this point it has been in terms of nothing being made up; yes all those zany kid stories are exact and true, but real as in sharing more stories like the previous post.  Life is not all cake pops and apple chai.  I want my blog to encourage, inspire and uplift.  I want my blog to be a source of pleasure, laughter and cause people to think or ponder, to have there own selah moment.  I want it to accurately express my world.  And my world is full of good, bad, sad, happy, zany, scary, painful, joyful and hormonal times.  As I am ever seeking to make this blog something more, I feel the time as come for me to be more consistent in posting about God, the things of God and what God is doing in my life.  Enter~meaningful monday.  I am committed to blogging about kids, family, crochet and school but I need to be more committed in blogging about God.  I steered away from that for many reasons but the time has come for a change.  ~Smile~

Now, onto the actual blog post that actually has something to do with the title.

Yesterday was an awesome day.  I'm thankful for yesterday.  We recently added a Sunday Bible study with our church plant, so currently we attend three services on Sunday.  Hence the reason it completely wipes me out, but yesterday was just one of those days where you feel God's presence hovering gently all around you all day long.  During our evening Bible study, we are in a series of lessons about forgiveness, my husband referenced this scripture:

"Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, 

for he who comes to God must believe that he exists 

and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him." 

Hebrews 11:6 Greek Bible

The KJV uses the word, diligently. I tweeted last night from the Bible study and asked, "are you a diligent seeker of God?"  So I actually woke up this morning thinking about this scripture.   We love to quote the first part and we love to quote the second part about rewards, but do we really ponder about what this scripture means, truly.  I really want to get to the last portion but we can't do that without first asking ourselves what the first part means.  

Without faith is it impossible to be well pleasing to him~~your good works do not impress God if you have no faith that He is.  As a matter of fact I'm not sure our good works impress God at all because the things we consider good works are the very things he commanded us to do (ie, give to the poor, care for the needy and widows, love our enemies and neighbors).  I'm sure that it pleases Him when we obey, but impressed?  When talking about Job he said, "this is my servant in whom I am well pleased."  Don't try to impress God with your actions or your giving.  

"For he who comes to God must believe that he exists"~~Come to God here is talking about approach.  Don't bother praying if you have doubts about His existence.  This part is elaborating the first part about faith.

"And the he is a rewarder of those who seek Him"~~This is everyone's favorite part of the scripture.  We love to quote this, especially when we are praying for a great need.  This part is so good that it has to be broken down even further.

Rewarder~~God himself gives the reward.  Do you know what the reward is?  It's God,  He is the reward.  Him partially dwelling with us here and now and fully once we are in Heaven.  The reward is not everything you pray about, the reward is that you get to pray and know that He listens.  I am not saying that He doesn't answer prayer because He does but that isn't the reward of seeking Him, but the true reward is that you even have a God to pray to, worship and commune with whenever you want. and that gives you eternal life.

Seek~~the original greek word means to "seek out early" or to "strive for as in agony of contest".  Wow!  Seek doesn't mean just to pray, it means to pursue.  Have you ran in foot race where you have to overtake the one in front of you?  That's how I see this, us chasing after God, diligently pursuing Him and then once we get Him, we've reached our reward.  What more could I need when I have God Almighty?  Proverbs 8:17 says, "I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me."

This makes me think of the scripture in Matthew that states "Seek you first the Kingdom of God, all His righteousness and all these things will be added to you."  There is that word again, seek.  

God's been dealing with me this morning, prodding me to ask myself, "Valerie, are you a diligent seeker of God?"  Holding up that mirror, taking a look to see if I am.  Am I really seeking after Him or just what He can give me?  Ouch!  Painful thought.  I wonder how different our circumstances would be if instead of praying about our needs, sought God just because we love Him and left the rest in His hands?  I'm not being preachy, I'm sharing what God is poking around in my heart today and thought it I'd share friends.

Are you a diligent seeker of God with the sole purpose of getting Him as the reward?