No, not your potential husband. And not the man of your dreams. I’m talking about the One who is more than a man, and who is able to do above and beyond anything you could EVER ask, think, or dream (Ephesians 3:20). I’m talking about God Himself!
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him. Hebrews 11:6
This passage goes on to describe Noah, Abraham, Enoch, Moses, and other people who went through life with one thing in common: They went through it via faith. God was with them, and they knew it, and they were not surprised at His presence.
Why do I say that they were not surprised at His presence? Because the Word lets us know that they lived by faith. Faith is not surprised. Faith knows now, though it may seem like knowing something in advance. They knew what was going to happen in their individual situations before having ever gone through the situations. Noah built an ark, Abraham went to sacrifice his son, Sarah believed she would have a son, Enoch pleased God. All of these things that happened wouldn’t have made sense to the mind, because the mind (our brain, our soul, our “thinking cap”) cannot receive the things of the spirit. This simply means that your brain has the ability to comprehend nothing that is spiritual in nature.
Well, what is God, but spiritual in nature? John 4:24 says that He IS spirit, and they that worship Him MUST worship Him IN spirit and IN truth. Sidebar: Right now, the teens in our youth group are diligently seeking Him in spirit and in truth, taking Him at His Word and going to it to learn more about who God is, and what is character is like. But back to Abraham and those guys…
So, in their hearts – their spirits – they knew that God was going to make good on His Word, and on His promises. Noah had never seen rain, but he knew exactly how things were going to end up when his family and all those animals got onboard the ark. He knew it while he spent years building it (the history states that it took between 55-100 years to do!), and while others undoubtedly thought he was crazy. Abraham knew that God would provide him an heir, and Sarah conceived one. The faith that they all exhibited was not a shallow faith. The faith they had was deep. Why? Because they had built it over time. They believed that He was, and that He was a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
What does it mean to diligently seek someone? Think about relationships. How many of you have a relationship with someone that you would consider “deep”? How about any relationships that you would consider “shallow” or “surfacey”? In which of these relationships have you spent the most time? What have you done to nurture this relationship? It is not up to one person to nurture a relationship; no, it is the responsibility of both parties involved to care for and look after that relationship. How have you contributed to its growth? Now ask yourself the same question about your relationship with God.
Have you nurtured this relationship? If not, you can start now! Spend time with God, like you would a close friend, or someone you actually WANT to get closer to. You know how to do this. You and I do it all the time with the people we “like like”. If we want to get to know someone better, we start paying attention to every little thing that we see in them. We literally absorb gobs of information about people whom we know nothing about at first, until one day, we feel strongly confident that if asked, we could honestly say that we really know that person.
Justin Bieber. Britney Spears. One Direction. Our crush. We say we know a lot about these people, and perhaps we do. But we only know what we were diligent to seek out.
God doesn’t want us to only know fact about Him though. It starts out that way, sure. But eventually, the relationship becomes less about knowing ABOUT God, and more about KNOWING God personally, on a one-to-one level.
Some people think that this is impossible. That no one deserves to or has the right to know God in this deeply personal level, as one speaking to a friend and a Father. But the Bible disagrees.
But as many as have received Him, to them gave He the power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name. Which were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, but of the will of God. John 1:12
You have the right to know God as a son. As a daughter. Seek Him, expecting that He will teach you, show you things, and guide you through things as a Father would to His sons. And never expect anything less. For He will never give you less.
Grace and peace,
Leon 🙂
Breakthrough Living Blog 