With All Your Heart

Devotional

Have you ever experienced God in a sunrise? Have you sensed his presence during a walk on the beach or a hike through the woods?

Most of us have times when we sense God’s nearness. At other times, he feels far from us. I can offer personal examples: navigating the stress of rush-hour traffic when I’m late to a meeting I’d rather not attend. Or sitting with someone going through intense grief I’m not able to lessen. Or watching news reports of tragedies I cannot prevent.

It certainly seems that there are “God moments” and there are “rest of life moments.” But this is not the way God created it to be. He wants to be as close to us in the hard times as in the good times. He promises us in Isaiah 43:2 that “when you pass through the waters, I will be with you.” John 11:35 tells us that he grieves as we grieve and feels every pain we feel.

God wants us to experience the power and strength of his presence in every moment of every day.

As we noted in yesterday’s devotional, we have been conditioned to seek God on Sunday and during religious activities but not during the rest of the week. We tend to turn to God in the good times and turn from him in the bad times.

But if you can learn to seek him “with all your heart,” every moment of every day, in every circumstance of life, he promises, “You will seek me and find me.” He longs for this kind of constant intimacy with you. Our Father wants his children to experience his best constantly and consistently.

To do that, we may need to develop the reflex of seeking God in every moment of the day. Ask him to reveal himself in your circumstances and in other people. Ask him to make his presence real to you in the experiences of your day. Look for him at work as you work; listen for his voice in your soul. Read and memorize Scripture, then recall its words as they apply to the decisions and challenges of your day.

In The Pursuit of God, A. W. Tozer noted, “The facts are that God is not silent, has never been silent. It is the nature of God to speak. The second person of the Trinity is called the Word. The Bible is the inevitable outcome of God’s continuous speech. It is the infallible declaration of his mind for us put into our familiar human words.”

Would God say you are seeking him today with your “whole heart”?

today’s devotional is written by Jim Denison