"Seeking God"

   Quite a few years ago, I set out to discover God. Believe it or not Jonah inspired me to know God. Jonah, a flawed man with an obvious distaste for the citizens of Nineveh, knew God. He knew how God would react to repentance. He knew God was merciful. He knew God was forgiving. He knew the character of God. He did not want the citizens of Nineveh to be saved from punishment. He was afraid that if they turned to God that God would save them. He was right.

I felt that I did not know God very well. I was not sure how He would react to situations in my life. I did not understand God. I started reading the Bible daily in order to really know God. My faith, personal relationship, and spiritual life is growing by leaps and bounds everyday through the grace of God. God in His faithfulness has cemented in my life a hunger and thirst for His righteousness that cannot be quenched or extinguished. I need, want, and desire God more than anything in my life.

PRAYER: Dear Heavenly Father, Creator of the universe, Divine and Holy, Holy, Holy God, We come before Your throne with thanksgiving for the numerous and often overlooked blessings in our life and we praise and magnify your name forever. The Almighty God and savior of our souls, we repent of our sins and acknowledge our transgressions and ask for the blood of Your son Jesus to be poured on us so that we may approach Your throne pure and holy. We pray that the Holy Spirit illuminate these scriptures in our lives. Also, we pray for a desire to know You better each and everyday. May we daily seek Your face, Your will, and may our lives glorify and magnify thy name forever. We pray this in the name our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

My personal prayer is that everyone comes to the realization that they need to know God more each and everyday. For those Christians who already realize their overwhelming need for God, I pray that He reveal Himself. As Christians we often know about God but very few Christians know God. We know that God created the earth, sent His son to die on the cross for us, and He has prepared a place for us in heaven. But do we know that He created the earth with calculated detail, that He makes covenants that are everlasting, that He loves justice, righteousness, and kindness? Do we realize that He is jealous, faithful, forgiving, and patient?

Here are lists of scriptures that God wrote to us. These verses discuss the advantages of seeking God. Also, it discusses the punishment when we refuse to seek God. Do you want to know God? If the answer is yes, then we must SEEK Him and we will find Him if we seek him with all our heart and all our soul. THAT IS A PROMISE!!!

Deuteronomy 4: 29
But from there you will SEEK the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you SEEK Him with all your heart and with all your soul.

 I Chronicles 16:10-11
10 Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who SEEK the LORD!
11 SEEK the LORD and His strength; SEEK His face evermore!

 I Chronicles 28:9
9 …know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you SEEK Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.

 II Chronicles 7: 14
If my people who are called by my name will humble themselves, and pray and SEEK my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.

 II Chronicles 15:2, 12-13
2…The LORD is with you while you are with Him. If you SEEK Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
12 Then they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul;
13 and whoever would not SEEK the LORD God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.

 II Chronicles 16:12-13
12 And in the thirty-ninth year of his reign, Asa became diseased in his feet, and his malady was severe; yet in his disease he did not SEEK the Lord, but the physicians.
13 So Asa rested with his fathers; he died in the forty-first year of his reign.

 II Chronicles 17:3-6
3 Now the LORD was with Jehoshaphat, because he walked in the former ways of his father David; he did not SEEK the Baals,
4 but sought the God of his father, and walked in His commandments and not according to the acts of Israel.
5 Therefore the LORD established the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah gave presents to Jehoshaphat, and he had riches and honor in abundance.
6 And his heart took delight in the ways of the LORD; moreover he removed the high places and wooden images from Judah.

 II Chronicles 31:20
20 Thus Hezekiah did throughout all Judah, and he did what was good and right and true before the LORD his God.
21 And in every work that he began in the service of the house of God, in the law and in the commandment, to SEEK his God, he did it with all his heart. So he prospered.

 II Chronicles 34:1-3  
1 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem.
2 And he did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and walked in the ways of his father David; he did not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.
3 For in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still young, he began to SEEK the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the wooden images, the carved images, and the molded images.

 Ezra 8:22
For I was ashamed to request of the king an escort of soldiers and horsemen to help us against the enemy on the road, because we had spoken to the king, saying, “The hand of our God is upon all those for good who SEEK Him, but His power and His wrath are against all those who forsake Him.”

 Psalms 9:9-10
9 The LORD also will be a refuge for the oppressed, A refuge in times of trouble.
10 And those who know your name will put their trust in you; for You, LORD, have not forsaken those who SEEK You.

 Psalms 27:4-10

4 One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I SEEK: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple

5 For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me; He shall set me high upon a rock.

6 And now my head shall be lifted up above my enemies all around me; therefore I will offer sacrifices of joy in His tabernacle; I will sing, yes, I will sing praises to the LORD.

7 Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice Have mercy also upon me, and answer me.

8 When you said, “SEEK My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, LORD, I will SEEK.”

9 Do not hide Your face from me; Do not turn Your servant away in anger; You have been my help; Do not leave me nor forsake me, O God of my salvation.

10 When my father and my mother forsake me, Then the LORD will take care of me.

Psalms 34:8-10

8 Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who trusts in Him!

9 Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him.

10 The young lions lack and suffer hunger; but those who SEEK the LORD shall not lack any good thing.
         

Psalms 63:1-8

1 O God, You are my God; Early will I SEEK You; My soul thirsts for You; My flesh longs for You In a dry and thirsty land Where there is no water.

2 So I have looked for you in the sanctuary, to see your power and your glory.

3 Because your lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise you.

4 Thus I will bless you while I live; I will lift up my hands in your name.

5 My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips.

6 When I remember you on my bed, I meditate on you in the night watches.

7 Because you have been my help, therefore in the shadow of your wings I will rejoice.

8 My soul follows close behind you; your right hand upholds me.

 Psalms 105:3-4
3 Glory in His holy name; Let the hearts of those rejoice who SEEK the LORD!
4 SEEK the LORD and His strength; SEEK His face evermore!

 Psalms 119:1-2
1 Blessed are the undefiled in the way, who walk in the law of the LORD!
2 Blessed are those who keep His testimonies,
         who SEEK Him with the whole heart!

 Isaiah 55:6-7
6 SEEK the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; Let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; And to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways my ways,” says the LORD
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.

 Zephaniah 2:3
3 SEEK the LORD, all you meek of the earth, who have upheld His justice. SEEK righteousness, SEEK humility. It may be that you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.

 Matthew 6: 31-34
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’
32 For after all these things the Gentiles SEEK. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things.
33 But SEEK first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.
34 Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

 Matthew 7:7-11

 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.

9 Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone?

10 Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent?

11 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!

Luke 11:9-13  

9 “So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you; SEEK, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

10 For everyone who asks receives, and he who SEEKS finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

11 If a son asks for bread  from any father among you, will he give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent instead of a fish?

12 Or if he asks for an egg, will he offer him a scorpion?

13 If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him!”

Luke 12:29-31

29 “And do not SEEK what you should eat or what you should drink, nor have an anxious mind.

30 For all these things the nations of the world SEEK after, and your Father knows that you need these things.

31 But SEEK the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added to you.

 Colossian 3:1-4
1 If then you were raised with Christ, SEEK those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.
2 Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.
3 For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
4 When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

 Heb 11:6
But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently SEEK Him.