Good morning!

I hope this day finds you and your family well. I invite you to take a few moments with me to read and reflect upon today’s scripture selection — and to carry these thoughts with you into your day.

Today’s Scripture: Matthew 7:7-11 

 ⁷ “Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you. ⁸ For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds, and for everyone who knocks, the door will be opened. ⁹ Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for bread, will give a stone? ¹⁰ Or if the child asks for a fish, will give a snake? ¹¹ If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good things to those who ask him!

Tim’s Devotional Reflection for Today

One of Jesus imperatives to his disciples in the Sermon on the Mount is “Search, and you will find.”  (Matthew 7:7, NRSV)

Are you a seeker—a searcher for truth and for what is good?

What Jesus calls us to seek is the kingdom of God—or the kingdom of heaven, as Matthew’s gospel prefers to call it. The kingdom of God, as most of Jesus’ parables illustrate, is whenever and wherever God’s will is done “on earth as it is in heaven.”

So, in considering these two ideas side by side–what we naturally tend to seek and what are we called to seek—here is a question to ponder:  Am I seeking the best, the highest, the most valuable, the most pleasing to God?

What does it mean to be a seeker as Jesus calls us to be?

I want to suggest a few things:

1] Seekers take the time and trouble to investigate spiritual matters and to learn all they can.

Maybe you are investigating the claims of Christianity. Maybe you’ve never put it in those terms, but the truth is that you’ve been checking it all out. I applaud you for your efforts. Let me encourage you to continue the investigation. Keep listening. Keep reading and studying and searching. You will arrive at your destination.

Just don’t give up because the answers aren’t coming as quickly as you like. Remember: Jesus promised us that if we seek we’ll find, if we ask we’ll receive and if we knock the door will be opened. At the very least – even if you’re not sure where you stand regarding faith issues – begin to pray.

Be honest with God and pray, “I’m not even sure if you exist, but if you do please show me who you are.” Embark on the journey. Seekers take the time and trouble to investigate spiritual matters. Take the first steps.

2] Seekers know that there is always more to be learned and more to be experienced.

Seekers haven’t arrived.  They don’t have all the answers.  God is still at work in the lives of people and there is always more to be learned.

Faith journeys begin in a lot of different places.  Sometimes, they begin with the awesome experience of nature.  It is possible to take a walk on the beach, climb a mountain, and end up with a profound sense of God.  God has given us a beautiful world. There is no desert so desolate that you do not see God’s fingerprints from creating it. Beyond the world, there are solar systems of intricate design and stars still uncharted. The immense size of creation can invoke awe and turn us toward the Creator.

It is my prayer for you and for me that we would never be complacent and apathetic concerning spiritual matters.  The satisfied only want to maintain their comfortable institutions, but seekers have that kind of “holy restlessness” that leads to deeper faith.  Even doubt for the seeker leads to deeper faith.  To use Frederick Beuchner’s words, for the seeker “doubt is the ants in the pants of faith” that gets us moving and prods us forward on the journey.

3] Seekers Stay on the Journey.

Have you noticed that one of the primary metaphors people use for investigating, for learning, for making decisions, for becoming convinced, for recovery or through many other processes is the journey.  We still use the metaphor today in the developed world, even though literal journeys for us are rather simple.  Our means of transportation have shortened journeys to the point that what may have once been difficult and even grueling has become more like an inconvenience or at worst a minor annoyance.  We’re accustomed to the quick and simple.

For investigating, learning, making difficult decisions, becoming convinced of something contrary to long-held belief, recovery from illness or addiction or through many other processes, the journeys are rarely ever direct or easy.  The way ahead is never clearly outlined or defined—whether the journey is toward faith in God or toward a deeper faith in God or toward a greater experience of God in our lives.  We may set out in a certain direction and then immediately face a hurdle of some kind.  We have to decide if we’re going to jump it or climb over it or journey around it or wade through it or turn back around.  If we jump that hurdle or move past it whatever way it requires, then we make new discoveries and we’ll soon find another hurdle about which we must make a decision.  This pattern repeats itself again and again. It takes faith and courage to go over those hurdles.

I don’t know what your hurdles are but keep going!  Stay on the journey!

4) Seekers grow in their knowledge of God.

The prophet Jeremiah, speaking for God (Jeremiah 29:13-14a) says, “When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart, I will let you find me, says the LORD….”

Deuteronomy 4:29 says “From there you will seek the Lord your God, and you will find him if you search after him with all your heart and soul.”

Understand that God loves you with a depth that you could never fathom. God calls us continually, but never sit and be satisfied with that. Seek God and a deeper relationship with God and you will surely find God and that deeper relationship.  Author Max Lucado wrote: “If there are a thousand steps between us and God, God will take all but one. God will leave the final one for us. The choice is ours.”

Whether you are struggling with the claims of Christianity or sorting out the new chapter toward which God is moving you in your life, take that step in God’s direction.

Understand that God loves you with a depth that you could never fathom. God calls us continually, but we must not sit and be satisfied with that. When we become seekers—continually seeking God and a deeper relationship with God — we will surely find God and that deeper relationship.

Hymn Suggestion

“Seek Ye First”

Thank you for sharing this moment of your day with me, with God, and with these reflections on a portion of scripture.  I hope you will carry these with you throughout your day and night.

Grace and Peace,

Dr. Tim Bruster
Senior Pastor