With All My Heart

I heard a sermon many years ago that asked the question, “How do you find God?” It was a provocative question that left me pondering, looking for the answer. How do I find God? Amid the noise and haste of my world, how do I find God? In the midst of worries and challenges, how do I find God?

There are some obvious answers, at least for me. I can pray. I can be silent in God’s presence. I can sing hymns of adoration and praise. I can read the Psalms. But I’ll have to admit that most of the time when I do those things, I really don’t find God.

It is a spiritual dilemma, disconcerting at times, when I find that God seems absent in spite of my spiritual disciplines and religious rituals. And then I find this word of good news tucked in the Scripture, Jeremiah 29:11-13.

For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.

There’s my answer. Whatever I do — from praying to singing and everything in between — I must search for God with all my heart. And in return, God promises: “You will seek me and find me, when you search for me with all your heart.”