“I drove over to Junction City the other day,” Stan commented one morning. “I went to visit my friend who’s the pastor of the Community Church.”
“How’s he doing?” I asked.
“Great,” Stan replied. “His health is good. The church is growing. People are coming to faith and pursuing discipleship. Everything seems to be just fine.”
“When I drove into the parking lot,” he continued, “I noticed there was a sign that said the title of his message on Sunday was going to be ‘Half-Hearted’.”
“Half-Hearted?” I said. “What’s that mean?”
”I asked him the same thing,” Stan replied. “I asked him what his message was going to be about, and he said he was going to tell his story about how he went from being half-hearted to being whole-hearted.”
“How so?”
“As he told me,” Stan said, “he had grown up in a Christian home, but his faith was only half-hearted at best. He mainly relied on the faith of his parents, rather than building his own.”
Continuing, he added, “The pastor said that he had a growing sense that the Holy Spirit was leading him to seek a deeper relationship with God, but he didn’t know how to do that until one day when he was led to a verse in the Book of Jeremiah.”
“A verse in the Old Testament?” I asked. “It had something to say to him about that?”
“Sure did,” Stan replied. “About how if we seek God with all our heart, we will find Him. The pastor said that after God spoke to him through that one verse, he went on to seek Him with his whole heart, not just half-heartedly, and he hasn’t looked back.”
“Seeking God with a whole heart, rather than half-heartedly,” I said. “That sounds kind of like something that might be a good approach for all of us.”
Stan responded, “Kind of like something that might be a good approach? It’s got to be more than that, my friend. If we only seek God half-heartedly, it’s not going to happen!”
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Bible verses to consider:
And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. Jeremiah 29:13.
But from there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him will all your heart and all your soul. Deuteronomy 4:29.
But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you. Matthew 6:33.
Seek, and you shall find. Matthew 7:7.
Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. James 4:8.
Prayer: Thank you, Father, for opening me to seek your free and gracious provision of life eternally with you through the cross of Christ. Thank you, too, for your provision of knowing you in an ever-deepening relationship if I will only seek all you have for me. I confess that too often I don’t seek you with my whole heart, but only do it with half a heart, or even less. Please forgive the foolishness of not seeking you and your kingdom with all my heart. Help me follow every step of your lead in that direction. Thank you that I can and do bring these prayers before you in the name of Jesus. Amen.
Think on this: Have you sought, found, and accepted God’s free and gracious provision of life with Him forever? If no, why? Why would you want to spend eternity separated from God? If you are a Christian with the assurance of salvation and redemption, how are you doing with seeking Him with your whole heart while He keeps you on this side of eternity? If you sense the need for change in seeking all He has for you with your whole heart, how is that going to happen? Is that what you want? Why or why not?
Waiting for the Train 