Are You Seeking God Wholeheartedly? Step out in Faith!
This is the outline from a class that I did with the teens at church several years ago.
I have:
- A Question
- A Theory
- A Secret (you may already know)
- A Suggestion
- A General Truth
- Are you seeking God whole heartedly? Why not? (I made an assumption)
Jeremiah 29
"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity."
- My theory is that we don’t seek Him because we don’t know God well enough. We all know about Him, but do we have a personal relationship with Him?
Because we don’t know Him, we don’t trust Him (or at least not enough to grow in our faith).
[It is nearly impossible to relinquish control of our lives to someone who we don’t know or trust. It only becomes an option when we have hit rock bottom or exhausted ourselves doing things our way without success.]We don’t believe that He really loves us or that He will take care of us.
We don’t trust that He wants the best for us, that He wants us to have joy & peace.
We believe that we know better what will be good for us, what will make us more joyful and at peace.
In short: WE DON’T UNDERSTAND WHO HE IS OR HIS LOVE FOR US. WE DON’T KNOW GOD ENOUGH TO LET GO.
I will even go as far as this; even those of us who have surrendered our lives to God in Christ are in the still process of trying to understand Him. My hunch is that we are closer to the group that is unwilling to become Christians than we are to fully grasping God’s love for us. I certainly struggle to wrap my mind around it.
- We all struggle with these things in varying degrees and at different times.
But those of us who have come to know God, however much, have faith. We stand firm in our Christianity, against reason at times.
We have tasted that the Lord is good, felt His love, glimpsed what we can barely comprehend.
Ephesians 1
"For this reason I kneel before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth derives its name. I pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge—that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, for ever and ever! Amen."
Remember Paul also said in Phil 3:7-9
"But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith."
I think Paul had an extraordinary understanding of God’s Love. My working theory is that his thorough knowledge of the Old Testament came into sharp focus in light of his personal relationship with Jesus.
4. My suggestion:
Give God Your Entire Heart, surrender your will, find out who He is. (if you don’t, you will never know)
You have no idea what you are missing! That’s why God repeatedly talks about the dark & the light.
In the dark, we are blind, but God (who is light) allows us to see.
Jesus said: “… give up everything …”
“How do I get the faith to do this?” you ask.
One Step at a Time
Jesus interacted with everyone he met in a unique way. He relates to each of us in the way best for us. He knows you. He will meet you wherever you are.
But, you have to take a step in faith. We don’t all experience God in the same way or even at the same rate.
- General Truth:
When I take a step towards God in faith, He gives me the grace for the next step. My faith grows as I see Him work. Walking with Jesus happens one step at a time. It happens moment by moment. With each decision, I am either walking with Him or away from Him.
If I don’t step out, I get nothing.
It’s like trying to get from one side of the room to another without walking.
Hebrews 11:6
"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 earnestly seek him."
This is how we grow. We must have a relationship with God, ask Him what He wants us to do, let Him lead you and change you through prayer and waiting for Him to work.
“God, please help me to want to seek you.”
“God, I am crabby, please change my heart.”
“God, this is what I am planning to do, do you agree? If I am wrong, please change my mind.”
“God, I am bitter and angry, please let me see the good in this person.”
“Please help me to forgive.”
“God, I don’t feel like praying, please help me to overcome.”
“I believe, please help me with my unbelief.”
Yes, I doubt, yes I have fears, yes it can be difficult. But when you seek God through prayer, reading His word, and stepping out in faith, and keep doing that, you will be amazed at what He will do in your life!
Take a Step in Faith – Biblical Examples
Look at Jesus – He always, or almost always, required people to take some step of faith.
Matthew 12
"Going on from that place, he went into their synagogue, and a man with a shriveled hand was there. Looking for a reason to bring charges against Jesus, they asked him, “Is it lawful to heal on the Sabbath?”
He said to them, “If any of you has a sheep and it falls into a pit on the Sabbath, will you not take hold of it and lift it out? How much more valuable is a person than a sheep! Therefore it is lawful to do good on the Sabbath.”
Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” So he stretched it out and it was completely restored, just as sound as the other."
Matthew 9
"But I want you to know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins.” So he said to the paralyzed man, “Get up, take your mat and go home.” Then the man got up and went home. When the crowd saw this, they were filled with awe; and they praised God, who had given such authority to man.
Just then a woman who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years came up behind him and touched the edge of his cloak. She said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be healed.”
Jesus turned and saw her. “Take heart, daughter,” he said, “your faith has healed you.” And the woman was healed at that moment.
As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, “Have mercy on us, Son of David!”
When he had gone indoors, the blind men came to him, and he asked them, “Do you believe that I am able to do this?”
“Yes, Lord,” they replied.
Then he touched their eyes and said, “According to your faith let it be done to you”; and their sight was restored. Jesus warned them sternly, “See that no one knows about this.”
Mark 9
“What are you arguing with them about?” he asked.
A man in the crowd answered, “Teacher, I brought you my son, who is possessed by a spirit that has robbed him of speech. Whenever it seizes him, it throws him to the ground. He foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth and becomes rigid. I asked your disciples to drive out the spirit, but they could not.”
“You unbelieving generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you? How long shall I put up with you? Bring the boy to me.”
So they brought him. When the spirit saw Jesus, it immediately threw the boy into a convulsion. He fell to the ground and rolled around, foaming at the mouth.
Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”
“From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
“‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for one who believes.”
Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
Matthew 8
"When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed, suffering terribly.”
Jesus said to him, “Shall I come and heal him?”
The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”
When Jesus heard this, he was amazed and said to those following him, “Truly I tell you, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.
Then Jesus said to the centurion, “Go! Let it be done just as you believed it would.” And his servant was healed at that moment."
Look at God working in the Old Testament.
Joshua 3
"Tell the priests who carry the ark of the covenant: ‘When you reach the edge of the Jordan’s waters, go and stand in the river.’”
Joshua said to the Israelites, “Come here and listen to the words of the Lord your God. This is how you will know that the living God is among you and that he will certainly drive out before you the Canaanites, Hittites, Hivites, Perizzites, Girgashites, Amorites and Jebusites. See, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth will go into the Jordan ahead of you. Now then, choose twelve men from the tribes of Israel, one from each tribe. And as soon as the priests who carry the ark of the Lord—the Lord of all the earth—set foot in the Jordan, its waters flowing downstream will be cut off and stand up in a heap.”
So when the people broke camp to cross the Jordan, the priests carrying the ark of the covenant went ahead of them. Now the Jordan is at flood stage all during harvest. Yet as soon as the priests who carried the ark reached the Jordan and their feet touched the water’s edge, the water from upstream stopped flowing. It piled up in a heap a great distance away, at a town called Adam in the vicinity of Zarethan, while the water flowing down to the Sea of the Arabah (that is, the Dead Sea) was completely cut off. So the people crossed over opposite Jericho. The priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord stopped in the middle of the Jordan and stood on dry ground, while all Israel passed by until the whole nation had completed the crossing on dry ground."
Malachi 3
“Will a mere mortal rob God? Yet you rob me.
“But you ask, ‘How are we robbing you?'
“In tithes and offerings. You are under a curse—your whole nation—because you are robbing me. Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the Lord Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it. I will prevent pests from devouring your crops, and the vines in your fields will not drop their fruit before it is ripe,” says the Lord Almighty. “Then all the nations will call you blessed, for yours will be a delightful land,” says the Lord Almighty."
See also:
Genesis 22 – Abraham & Isaac
2 Kings 5 – Naaman’s leprosy
Judges 7 – God trims army down and down