How to Seek God With Your Whole Heart

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

You know, I just love talking about seeking God’s face. Seeking God is truly my favorite part of living the Christian life. The fact that we get to walk and talk with our Creator; walking with Him “in the cool of the day…”

But I think about all the ways the enemy has attempted to stop us from doing just that – from trusting God enough to share every aspect of our lives with Him.

We find ourselves believing lies and half-truths about God, even walking around with a wrong view of what it means to be a Christian, a wrong view of God and our sufferings on this earth.  All these things can skew our perspectives on this big God, our Creator; the very one who is good and gave us life.

Oh give thanks to the Lord, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever! Psalm 107:1

Be still and know that I am God.

You know, I love to take things slow. I naturally walk at a slower pace than most people and I like to ponder things with slow and methodical thought. I treasure rest and relaxation, and I’m most happy when the people around me are enjoying themselves and at ease.

So I’m eternally grateful that we serve a God who can be found in the still and quiet places.

Maybe because He knew the world would soon be moving at such a chaotic pace that He positioned Himself within our rest, to have our full attention during intimate moments with Him.

God calls us to seek Him with our whole hearts. So how can we take in the fullness of experiencing Him if we’re giving Him our half-hearted attention?

Being still causes us to pause and look for God, which takes effort; the effort of quieting the soul so that we can hear Him.

“Know that I am God.” There’s a deeper knowledge of God and a clearer picture of who He is, found in the stillness.  And He’s a God who wants us to rest in Him. A God who wants to be with us and calls us to seek Him out.

Intimate moments connecting with the Father.

I humbly ask as a Christian, if you are a Muslim or Buddhist, do you feel connected to your god; as in a relationship? Does your god listen to you and respond? Do they laugh with you, bring things to your remembrance that give you great delight? Have they shared your suffering? Do they mourn with you when you’re sad? Rejoice with you in celebration?

I marvel at the intimate moments of fellowship I have with God. God speaks to our hearts in ways that only we would understand – the little inside jokes between a Father and His child. God is beautiful that way.

What keeps us from seeking God.

James 4:8 says “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Clean your hands you sinners, purify your hearts you double-minded.”

The first part of James 4:8 doesn’t say He might draw near to you, but that He will. The question is, do we believe Him? Do we believe He wasn’t lying when He said this? Do we believe that He will draw near to us every single time? We may even believe God is too disappointed in us to even desire for us to come near.

Disappointment and uncertainty can keep us from seeking God.

When emotions are down, when we’re losing hope and when the promise has tarried… it can feel like our faith has been sapped! The enemy uses disappointment to place distance between us and God, causing us to doubt Him and what He’s said.

We soon find ourselves unable to go to God because it hurts too much.

But God doesn’t want us to leave the Secret Place carrying the same heavy load we went in with. When I’ve felt so far from the Lord, He’s shown me countless times that yes He was so near. The invitation into His presence, the Holy of Holies…was constant.

How to seek God.

Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Clean your hands you sinners, purify your hearts you double-minded. James 4:8

1.If you desire to draw near to God, come to Him in faith. God responds to our faith, not our needs. He sees our need and has mercy on us, but when we come to Him in faith is when we see the miracle.

Matthew 21-28

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.  A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is demon-possessed and suffering terribly.”  Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.” He answered, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel.”  The woman came and knelt before him. “Lord, help me!” she said. He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to the dogs.”  “Yes it is, Lord,” she said. “Even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus said to her, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed at that. 

God knows how to engage our faith. Jesus was well aware of the Canaanite woman’s need but knew just what to say to her that would ignite her faith to see her daughter made well. When she demonstrated her unwavering, unwilling-to-bend faith, she received the answer she was looking for.

Coming to God in faith is simple, but not always easy. I’ve learned that God doesn’t deal in half-truths. He doesn’t say one thing and mean something else like we often do. So we can come to Him believing that what He has promised is faithful and true.

So even if you feel a million miles away from Him; even if you think He won’t listen because He’s already told you what to do…expect that if you draw near, He is faithful to draw near to you.

2. Come to Him with pure motives and clean hands. We have to ask ourselves why we’re seeking God right now. Are we trying to get something out of Him or are we genuinely wanting to spend time with the Father? The second reason takes time to cultivate our relationship with Him. And it’s a relationship built on trust; on experiencing God for ourselves; getting acquainted with His goodness and faithfulness. Yes, we often do have very serious requests, but seeking God, not the requests alone, allows us to draw near.

3. Get comfortable letting go of control. A song called Letting Go by Steffany Gretzinger is in my head right now as I write this. “I’m letting go, and falling into you…”

Letting go. Why is that such a struggle for some of us? (talking about myself, here) But I’ve found such peace when I truly let things go as I approached the Throne of Grace, no matter how scary it felt. I found great peace as I took my hand off life’s circumstances, gave them to Jesus and left them there. And even if I picked them back up, I knew that I could give them back to Jesus a thousand times over. He’s gracious that way.

4. We learn to wait on Him. If we begin to feel disconnected from God during our Quiet Times, especially those of us prone to fear, the solution is simple.  Stay.  Don’t get up and leave in sadness, but stay until you’re free.  Even if you’ve prayed for peace a thousand times over, ask for it again, and stay and wait on Him.

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. Lamentations 3:25

What if you’ve lost the desire to seek God?

If you’ve lost your passion for God, your worship has gone stale, and you’re too emotionally broken up to come to Him…I get it.

I have experienced this too many times to count. But I’ve learned that true worship to God is a by-product of the revelation of Jesus in our hearts; which only comes through devotion to and reverence for the Word of God. We learn to prioritize it, delight in it, and feast on it.

And the more we get to know Jesus, God, and the Holy Spirit through His Word…the more we develop adoration for Him: which is where true worship begins.

So if my worship has gone stale, I ask myself how much time have I been devoting to God’s Word.

Also, true worship doesn’t begin and end with a song; it’s a lifestyle. We worship God by the way we live our lives.

When you seek God with your whole heart, you will find Him.

And in Him is everything you need. Finding Him is built out of a relationship, not works, formulas or strategies. The quickest times I’ve been able to enter His presence have been when I learned to relax and stop striving to hear from Him.

Coach Cindy Stewart says, What do you find when you seek God? If you seek God’s presence, you will find it.  If you seek God’s wisdom and will, you will find it. If you seek God’s strength, you will find it. If you seek God’s peace, you will find it.

Be patient with the Lord and seek Him diligently. Don’t give up.

Be blessed and encouraged.

Live Worship Set: Amanda Cook, Steffany Gretzinger & Hunter Thompson

Songs: Great Are You Lord, Home, Mercy, and Letting Go.

Scriptures to meditate on:

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

And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him. Hebrews 11:6’

Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually! 1 Chronicles 16:11

I love those who love me, and those who seek me diligently find me. Proverbs 8:17

“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8

The young lions suffer want and hunger; but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. Psalm 34:10

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Isaiah 55:6-7

The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him. Lamentations 3:25