Losing your wallet is a scary event – whether it’s filled with cash or not. We all keep so much of value in our wallet or purse. Once it’s been misplaced, finding it becomes an urgent focus.
Whether this is your first visit to my study or a regular morning event for you, welcome to “Mornings with Bishop Robert” — I think you’re going to happy you dropped by. Grab your cup and let’s spend a few minutes digging into a lesson on searching well. My goal is to introduce people to the Jesus they never knew, and help them get to know Him and His word personally – and better ! If our time together today impacts your search for faith, please like, subscribe and share it with a friend!
Just about everyone reading this has misplaced their wallet or purse. For some folks it’s a rare occurrence, for others it’s a regular habit. I used to work for someone who used to lose his wallet with such regularity that I had the lost-and-found numbers of half a dozen major airlines in my contact list. I remember being on the phone with AMEX customer service to replace his lost card and the agent remarking, “Wow, this happens to him quite a bit!” She was right.
Whether it happens often or not, when you lose your wallet or purse it’s an instant attention grabber. The prospect of having to replace a driver’s license, credit cards, ATM cards and other important cards and documents is daunting. So not being able to find yours initiates a massive and focused search. And no half-hearted effort will do. No one with a missing purse gives a passing glance in the back seat of the car and decides that’s enough searching. And someone with a lost wallet begins a deliberate re-tracing of their steps and does whatever it takes to try and locate it. Finding the missing item is a priority, not something you put off until the weekend when you might have some extra time. Searching is a dedicated, full-court press until every option is exhausted. In the words of today’s title – you’re searching for real.
In today’s verse God says YOU WILL SEEK ME AND FIND ME WHEN YOU SEEK ME WITH ALL YOUR HEART.
We’ve been talking about finding someTHING, but the stakes go through the roof when you find yourself searching for someONE. Whether an aged parent with Alzheimer’s disease has wandered away or your four year old toddler, the search begins the second you find out they’re missing. If it’s not successful in the first few minutes, then the call for help goes out to family, friends and even first-responders. Now we’re talking about REALLY searching for real! It could become a life or death situation very quickly!
Has it ever occurred to you that YOU are actually in a life or death situation?
God has some specific plans He wants to see become reality in your life. The plans He has for you are plans to prosper you and not to harm you. His desire is to give you hope and a future. So He displays His magnificent glory in all that He has created, and makes it so nothing on this earth will totally satisfy the longings of your heart. True and absolute fulfilment will only come from a relationship with Him. Everything you see, do and feel is designed to get your attention. Then, one day, you realize why the emptiness within won’t go away. It’s a God-shaped hole in your life that only He can fill.
The good news is that He intends to fill it, and He will do it as soon as you start searching for Him. I’m talking about searching FOR REAL. More than any missing thing or any other missing person, the knowledge that you need God and don’t yet have a relationship with Him will thrust you into search mode. Then you will call upon God. You’ll come to Him and pray to Him. When you do, He promises to hear you. And He promises that you’ll actually find Him.
A man I know was looking for a glass-fronted bookshelf, and decided he might save himself some time and fuel if he used the internet instead of his car to look. But the search results, he discovered, were often more than a little perplexing. On one website, the page was headed: “Products Matching ‘Glass Front Bookshelf.'” Naturally, he was hoping to find glass-fronted bookshelves as he scrolled down. Instead there was a vacuum cleaner, an outdoor gazebo, a cello, retractable crowd control barriers, sports bags, a multi-purpose ladder, a baby carriage, and a motorised folding arm awning. God is much more reliable than Google. His promise is that we will find Him, if we search for Him with all our hearts.
All our heart. Not some half-hearted “let me get around to it someday” type of searching. Don’t put it off until the weekend, or whenever you find some time. That’s never how serious searches are conducted. Make it a focus, a real priority.
I’m told that Mark Twain once said, “Of all the things I’ve lost, I miss my mind the most.” He’s considered by most historians to be an atheist, and Twain had nothing good to say about faith that I can find. While he may have missed his lost mind most while he was on earth, that’s no longer the case. His lost soul is now of far greater consequence.
The time to search for God is now. And you should keep searching until you find Him.
