Have you ever lost something of value that you would have given anything to find? One day my 3-year-old son and I were shopping in a department store. I was pawing through the sales racks looking for bargains, and I turned around to say something to him only to see empty space. In a panic, I called his name and looked up and down the aisles all around us trying to find him. He was nowhere to be seen. I was about to call in store reinforcements for help when I heard a giggle and a voice say, “Here I am, Mommy!” He had crawled into the middle of a clothes rack to play hide and seek. Although he had only been missing for a few minutes, I was weak with relief when I pulled him into my arms.
As I think about this week’s focus for Lent, I wonder am I this desperate when I am seeking God? Am I pursuing Him with the same intensity that I had when I was looking for my son?
I don’t know that I am, but I think I need to step it up a notch.
According to the Blue Letter Bible, the Greek word for seek is zeteo, and it means all of the following:
- to seek in order to find
- to seek [in order to find out] by thinking, meditating, reasoning, to enquire into
- to crave, demand something from someone
As I look at these meanings, the word crave resonates with me, seems to go hand-in-hand with seek. When I’m craving a piece of chocolate, it’s on my brain constantly until I fulfill that craving by popping a velvety piece into my mouth. I can’t stop thinking about it, and I seem to see chocolate or smell it wherever I go. That’s how I should be craving God everyday. I need to have Him on my heart constantly, see Him wherever I go, catch his scent on the breeze. Whether I’m at work, at home, or out and about, I can think about Him, meditate on Him, read His word, and pray. But the one difference is I don’t just want to satisfy my craving, I want to feed it.
For this week of Lent, let’s work on seeking God and indulging our cravings for Him. Unlike chocolate, He’s not fattening, so we can have as much as we want.
Share some ways you will be seeking Him this week and pray on!
(Here are the other posts in this series: Self-Denial, Repentance and Examen)
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