“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jeremiah 29:13, NIV)
The very best golfers in the game have a unique ability to focus better than everyone else when it matters the most. When the pressure is on, somehow they can isolate what needs to be done in that moment. They block out all the other extraneous thoughts and focus on what needs to be done with the shot they are hitting now.
We have only one thing that we can truly claim as our own: our will.God calls us to the same singular focus. When we truly want to know him, we must seek him with our whole heart. We might learn about him in an academic way by occasionally listening to someone preach about him and his life, or even by doing a little research on our own. We can talk to other people about God and even be successful in living a good life. And yet, we may not really know God. If our idea of knowing God doesn’t involve a change in the way we live and think, we are missing the mark.
Why does that matter? Knowing God is an all-or-none thing. He doesn’t want part of us; he wants our whole heart. He wants to change us and heal us and use us. Holding anything back makes it impossible for him to complete the work that needs to be done in our heart. It is possible to actually know the being who created us, to know the reason we are here, and to find the way to true happiness by living our life according to his plan for us.
We have only one thing that we can truly claim as our own. We have our will, which is the intention of our heart. If our intention is to know God, we will seek him with all our heart. He promises that if we seek him like that, we will find him.
God has shown us who he is in a direct demonstration through His Son Jesus. God asks us to believe and follow Jesus. If our intention is to do that, he will change us and heal us and use us. Then one day he will bring us home to be with him for all eternity. We have no power to do this on our own. If we give God our intention, he will do the rest. Our life will have the singular focus that clears out all the extraneous noise, and we will find the peace and hope we have so desperately been seeking.
What are you focusing on today?
—
Linda Ballard
November 2, 2017
Copyright 2017 Links Players International
The Links Daily Devotional appears Monday-Friday at www.linksplayers.com.