Seek God | A Deliberate Search
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~5 min read
Hi there, welcome to Well Lit Soul, where we seek God, face darkness, and shine brighter. This week we will start a 3-part series where we talk through the objective of Well Lit Soul. So, today’s blog is called: Seek God | A Deliberate Search.
One of the elements of a strong spirit and bright light is learning how to seek God and knowing who He is. Since we are made in the image of God (Genesis 1:26-27) and Jesus is the light of all men (John 1:3-4), our lights will shine brighter the more we are attuned to and aligned with Him as the original creator and source of light (Genesis 1:3 and John 1:6-9).
Which is why it’s so important to seek and find God. And as Jesus promises in Matthew 7:7-8,
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.’
However, some of my prior searches were more challenging than expected. While I was investigating the scriptures to find God during previous storms, I began to experience feelings of doubt and diminishing trust in Him. But I knew that my waning confidence had nothing to do with Him and everything to do with my improper expectations and misunderstandings about who He was and how He worked. So, I decided to take inventory of what I knew about God, unlearn who I thought He was, and relearn who He says He is.
And the best way I knew how to do that was to start at the very beginning of the bible. So I started with Genesis, but first I wrote down a series of questions to guide my study because I needed my learnings to be less about what historical events occurred or what decisions the people made, and instead focus exclusively on God and His fullness.
The questions I wanted answers to when re-reading Genesis were:
Who is God?
What is He saying? doing? teaching? giving/providing?
Where is He? Who is He with?
When is He present? speaking? teaching? giving? acting?
Why is He present? speaking? teaching? giving? acting?
How is He present? speaking? teaching? giving? acting?
What is His power and strength?
What is His will?
Prepared with those questions, I slowly read one chapter at a time. And in every verse, I looked to see if I could find an answer to one or more of those questions. And wouldn’t you know it, I not only got my questions answered, but I began to see and understand God in a completely different light.
Now, it would take another blog series or maybe even a seminar to go through everything I re-learned about God, but my main takeaway was that ultimately I needed to change the way I approached Him. Throughout much of my Christian walk, I was centering myself and prioritizing my needs, wants, goals, etc. But after taking four months to read through Genesis with this new intention, I began to more clearly understand that none of this is about me. Instead, all of this is about God and His plans, desires, and will being fulfilled.
So, rather than operating with the primary expectation of God to take care of me, I changed my approach so that I would instead first seek to serve Him. Because again, my life is not about me. It’s about Him. And honestly, it’s really not even my life, it’s His life because He gave it to me. The same way my childhood bedroom wasn’t mine, I was merely using a room that belonged to my parents who were letting me borrow it.
Even moreso, God owns my life because Jesus purchased it with His blood (Colossians 1:13-14). And since I’m borrowing it, I would do well to give my life back to Him (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). Which means it is my responsibility to use my life in the way He sees fit. Regardless of my own feelings, thoughts, desires, or anything else. All of that is secondary.
But I’ve found that when I seek God and really learn Him, it is an extreme joy to commit my life to Him. It actually makes me want to make the difficult sacrifices, accept the hard truths, and face the uncomfortable changes because it allows me to live in communion with Him. And ultimately, when I know Him and His love, nothing on this earth will be better than that.
Connection Question: What are some of the things you’ve learned while seeking God? How has it changed the way you approach Him? Let me know in the comments. I’d love to connect with you about it.