Seek Me

Series: Hear Me

Jeremiah 29:13 ESV

After working with prayer ministry most of my life I came to realize we often think we know what we need but that is not really what we need.

For example if our car breaks down we ask for a new car or the money to fix the old car. We focus on temporal things that will help us today.

God does listen and help but as we read scripture and really listen we begin to realize God wants to give us much more.

Jeremiah 29:13 tells us, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”

The real question at hand is whether we really want to focus on temporary things or whether we want to focus to focus on eternal things.

Maybe it’s common but I find the older I get I no longer focus on a broken toaster. My desire…my real desire is to sit with God.

In Jeremiah 29 the prophet was writing to the Jewish exiles in Babylon who had been removed from their homeland. He knew they were traumatized. He knew they wanted to return yo Jerusalem. He knew they longed for the land of their fathers.

Jeremiah also knew their time in Babylon was not a brief interlude.

He knew many of his Jewish brothers would die in a foreign land. It’s difficult to say if we can really understand what it would have been like to realize they would not be buried with their fathers.

In the Old Testament it meant they were gathered with their people. It was a symbol of hope and loyalty. Being buried with your tribe was a sign of continuity.

In my lifetime I have known people who continuously lived on the land of their great grandfathers, grand fathers, and fathers, and they were buried in the same area of one cemetery. They knew where they would be buried.

But as we have scattered more and more for the right jobs we tend to settle in different areas.

We tend to lean more toward neo-nomadic lifestyles. If an opportunity for a dream job is offered we pack up and move to that city.

The relocation means we will look for new housing, new friends, a new church home, and new schools for our children. Seventy years ago when I was born we lived in a house and the only move we made was to a house in the same neighborhood. Not much changed.

‘You will seek me and find me’ that Jeremiah spoke of was still true and is still true today.

Being ministry we moved a lot and I came to a point where I looked forward to making new friends in a new church.

When we move about we learn that wherever we go we will seek God in that place. We look for friends who are like-minded. We grow accustomed to new ways to worship.

The key is that we grow.

God remains the same and is always constant and we come to know we can count on the same familiarity in God. Even though the landscape changes God helps us to adapt.

I already see signs of my grandchildren spreading around even more. I realize…who knows what their future in God will look like?

Deborah/acrazyjourney.com