seek

Opening Prayer:  O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you. (Psalm 63:1)

Scripture: Psalm 63:1, Matthew 6:33

Journal: What are you really seeking these days?  How are you seeking God for what it can do for you, rather than seeking him for who he is?

Reflection:  Why do you seek God?  No, really?  What is the real reason?  Go ahead, dig down beneath all of the surface answers and really ask yourself that question.  It is an incredibly difficult one to answer—or at least to answer honestly—because the reality is that we seek so many things other than God, or at least under the guise of seeking God. 

     We seek notoriety, we seek success, we seek significance.  We seek answers, we seek relief, we seek control.  We seek attention, we seek applause, we seek affirmation.  All of which are not God.  Even in ministry we subtly seek things other than God, in the name of seeking God.  We seek results, we seek impact, we seek something to pass along to others, etc.  And when we seek these things, it is not ultimately God that we seek.

     “O God, you are my God,” David writes, “Earnestly I seek YOU.”  God is the end, not merely a means to an end.  The reason we seek God is simply because he is God, and he is worthy of being sought.  As C.S. Lewis once said, “If you are seeking God not as the end, but a means to an end, you are not seeking him at all.”  King David knew this.  He knew how easy it was for us to get off track.  He knew how easily we could be distracted from seeking God by seeking the gifts of God.  So he brought us back to the bottom line: Life with God is about seeking God—period.  Only when we get to the point of seeking him first, will the other things be added.

Prayer

Closing Prayer: O my God, teach me to seek you, for I cannot seek you unless you teach me, or find you unless you show yourself to me.  Let me seek you in my desire, and desire you in my seeking.  Let me find you by loving you, let me love you when I find you.  ~St. Anselm of Canterbury