Finding God with My Whole Heart

You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:13 HCSB

In light of all that the Spirit has shown me in the last week, this verse is a promise of extraordinary power and love. After reading John’s revelatory post and witnessing Martha’s incredible heart transaction with the Lord, I have a deeper understanding of the call He gave me in my life verse: “Turn and keep on coming to Me with ALL your heart!” There will be no shortage of crisis and trouble and suffering in this life, and what we need when trouble comes, what we need above all else, is to find God in it.

What the Heart Needs

I spoke to a dear man a few days ago who is suffering greatly. I cried just hearing about his physical condition because it was so painful, but the Spirit was concerned about an even deeper torment in this man’s heart. His was a torment born of the belief that God was disappointed in him for the choices he’d made in life. Ultimately, this man was in a crisis of love and it was making his heart sick.

The Spirit rose up in me so fast at that point! I had personally experienced the Father’s enormous love for this man, so I could not be moved from that position. And as I told him about that love, rather firmly I confess, I saw that the state of this man’s spirit was far more urgent than his need for physical healing. He needed to experience the love and presence of God more than anything else.

We can and do make God angry. That’s scripturally undeniable. But disappointment and shame is the purview of humanity, not the Father. We are known, inside and out. Our days are numbered and every hair on our heads is counted. God knows every facet of our hearts and minds. To be disappointed or ashamed of us, He would have to expect more from us than we are capable of doing. And the entirety of the Old Testament stands to refute the idea that we are capable of saving ourselves from our fallen nature.

My Heart Needs the Presence of God

“For God SO LOVED THE WORLD that He gave His only begotten Son…” God’s great LOVE pursues us from the first breath we take. We were created for Love and it is Love that we need above everything else in this life.

When I find myself in the midst of an unsolvable quandary, I search for wisdom in the form of knowledge, but it is the presence of Wisdom that solves the unsolvable. When I am in pain, I pray for healing, but it is the presence of the Healer that brings me peace. When I am intimidated and confused, I look for the truth that will bolster my position, but it is the presence of Truth that anchors my feet and enables me to stand. Whatever the crisis that I’m faced with, it is the presence of God that I desperately need.

After I got off the phone with this man, I cried off and on for the rest of the day. I couldn’t seem to shake the grief. And I finally realized that I was grieving because I saw how little we know just who God really is and how MUCH He loves us. I wasn’t crying just for this precious man, I was crying for me and for everyone I know. It takes so little to make me doubt His love and His character and His very nature. That’s who I am, but it most assuredly is not who God is. “You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”

The people and situations that bring me to my knees – that bring me to my NEED – are a sign of the fathomless depth of God’s love for me. If the condition for finding Him is to search for Him with my whole heart, He must first connect me with my whole heart. And that takes some doing. We are blessed beyond measure to have a Father so committed to being found.

You reveal the path of life to me; in Your presence is abundant joy; in Your right hand are eternal pleasures.
Psalm 16:11 HCSB