“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” (Jer. 29:13)

“God did this (made the world and all that was in it and determined the times and places we would live)... so that we would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us.” (Acts 17:27)

My confidence in God has grown over the years...assured that He knows where we are at, and He knows how to find us...as well as being able to ‘direct our steps’ so that we in turn...find Him. This whole ‘seeking and finding God’ deal is a two-way street.

“The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to Him” (2 Chron. 16:9)....and “ the Son of Man came to seek... and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:10)

I suppose the real question at hand is ...how badly do we want to find Him? Not everyone does, you know- (John 3:19-21; Mark 5:17). There is no shortage of folks who would tell you they ‘believe in Him’...and even are quick to ‘honor Him with their lips/mouths’...but the problem goes back to their hearts and what it longs for even more so. (John 12:42-43; Matt. 13:8-9)

This in turn brings up an interesting and challenging question- what’s the point in seeking after Him...if we have mixed feelings about ‘following’ Him when we do find Him? And this takes us back to the subject of what it means to ‘abide’ in Him, which Jesus made clear that unless we do...there isn’t going to be any lasting fruit produced in our lives (John 15:4-6,16).

When a professing ‘believer’ is willing to admit that they don’t always... ‘want to abide in Jesus’...is it not a fair question to ask why that is? We can certainly appreciate the honesty expressed in such a statement, but it should cause us to look deeper within and ask what might we be ‘loving more’ than Him? This whole ‘abiding thing’ was never intended to be a ‘hit and miss’ way of life, depending on how one ‘felt’ on any given day. That’s why I compare ‘abiding in Jesus’ as being akin to driving a car. It requires something of us, that we keep our hands on the wheel, our eyes on the road ahead, and we resist the temptations and distractions so that we don’t drift out of our lane, or should I say ‘His’ lane?

I know, people are quick to say it’s not ‘possible’ to keep your mind and thoughts and affections on Jesus ‘all the time’. I understand where they are coming from; but let’s be honest here- if your 16 year old child who just obtained their driver’s license gets behind the wheel of that new car you helped them acquire ...and they proceed to tell you that it’s gonna be impossible for them to focus on driving and keep their eyes on the road...how are you going to feel about sending them on down the road anyway?

Where I think we might be lacking in our understanding here is failing to see the importance of doing this for both, be it with driving and/or abiding in Jesus. People who are prone to having blackouts or seizures are not legally allowed to drive a motor vehicle...for obvious reasons. Yes, I know we are faced relentlessly with distractions and temptations along with all the ‘cares of life’, but those are not legitimate ‘excuses’ when it comes to driving, nor should they be when it comes to abiding in Jesus. “But Mom...I got a text message and video clip from my boyfriend while I was on the interstate; what was I supposed to do? I had to look at it even though I was driving 70 mph in heavy traffic!” (Heb. 2:1)

I mentioned yesterday about my friend ‘Joe’, who went to be with the Lord a number of years ago, and how he use to have this saying telling me that every morning, when he woke up, he’d go to ‘hunting for Him’. That has really resonated more with me recently when it comes to wanting to convey what it means to abide in Jesus. It’s a choice...to want to be with and walk with Jesus...all of the time. Perhaps something I have come to learn might resonate with you, and it has to do with how I begin every waking day.

For the past six years, ever since I had my ‘awakening’ and ‘found Him’ again, a particular pattern developed over time, where I found myself waking up early every single morning, unaided by any alarm clock. When I say early, it is usually between 2-3:00AM. Don’t ask me why, but it started during the pandemic and shutdown back in 2020 when there wasn’t a whole lot going on for me then, business-wise. God was doing a work of renewal in my heart and through His word. I’d get up, put the coffee on...and spend hours...reading, studying, writing out scriptures...wearing out the pages on my bible. And I don’t share this to be boasting or patting myself on the back. It’s just how God dealt with me during this season which then led to posting these daily lessons. (Today is lesson #1623).

I remember in years past, getting in these ‘good intention modes’ where I made myself get up early to read and study, but it never lasted for any number of reasons. Truth be told, I could be easily ‘persuaded by the flesh’ to sleep in that morning, or go take care of this or that first...and the next thing you knew...I was back in old ‘ruts’. But it’s not like that for me anymore, since I’ve come to understand what it is to abide in Him. And that’s not to say that on any given morning, when my eyes pop open...that I don’t have a little bit of ‘brain fog’ to fight through. But I know now what it means to ‘bring every thought into captivity’ (2 Cor. 10:5) and to ‘set my mind on things above, and not on the earth’ (Col. 3:2). Again, I liken this to driving a car.

Before Kathy (my wife) retired recently, I would usually drive her to the BART station or just drive her into the city where she worked (here in SF). There are a few interchanges where I have a lot of serious merging to do in order to get into the correct lane. Because it was an early commute, traffic was usually light, but on occasion, I would find myself tensing up, both hands on the wheel...and totally focused on what was happening as I maneuvered across 3-4 lanes to get in to my turn off in time. And if weather was unfavorable, I was that much more focused and not wanting to ‘chat’ at the moment.

The other morning, this all came to mind because when I woke up at my usual time, I found myself with a unique challenge. I could not remember the last time I felt this bombarded with fatigue, negative thoughts and discouragement, silent voices/thoughts telling me to just go back to bed because nobody wanted to hear/read what I had to say and God wasn’t going to care if I didn’t spend time in my Bible that one morning. It was a traffic jam of distracting thoughts; and instead of sitting down at my computer where my Bible lays open all the time, I took a place on the sofa in the other room...and found myself ‘hunting for Him’. There was this sense of being behind the wheel and working my way through ‘heavy traffic’ as I sought to get in ‘His lane’. And ‘grace’ made a way through all the clutter; the ‘congestion’ cleared...the lane opened up as peace filled my heart and mind. I found Him, and He found me. It was another great morning where I had more ‘manna’ waiting on me.

Friends...God is no respecter of persons...He’s waiting and willing to do the same for you.