Transformational Thought
As I get older, my memory just isn’t the same. Don’t let my kids hear this, but I’m not as sharp or quick as I used to be. I tell myself I have so much more to remember, that it takes a couple seconds longer to look through all those file cabinets in my head. But simple things seem to fall through the cracks of my mind. One of my solutions is to put small items in a special place that I will definitely be able to remember. Well, you guessed it … at times I forget where or what that special place is.
When I am searching for my keys, it is because my keys are not in the right place. I put them in a different or wrong place. They are lost. Take another example – a family visit to Washington, D.C. When we’re fighting through traffic searching for the Washington Monument, it’s not the monument that’s lost. We are the ones who are lost!
Let’s apply this to spiritually. We search for the Truth but not because the Truth is lost. We search for the Truth because we are lost. We were designed by God to seek and find Him. Our search is mainly for comfort, peace, love, happiness, and value … things God is able to give us and wants to give us. Unfortunately, instead of going to God for one-stop shopping, we search in many other places and activities for the desires of our hearts.
We try to find relief in work, computers, food, caffeine, relationships, kids, grown-up toys, getting ahead, sex, alcohol, sleep, isolation, drugs, power, and control. But we are looking in the wrong places. We search because we are lost. God isn’t lost. He is in the same place all the time. You’ll find Him in His word, through prayer, and as He orchestrates your circumstances to direct you back on track to find Him. Where is your own search leading you? Let the word of God overflow in your mind and spirit: “Seek and you will find”; “I am the way, the truth and the life”.
Today, if you are searching for anything other than His Truth, it’s time for a route correction. It’s just like the GPS saying, “recalculating.” Identify what you are searching for today. Start by writing down the activities of your day. Are you pursuing these activities to meet your needs instead of pursuing God? Are these activities the ones God would prescribe for your treatment plan? Be honest and examine why you’re not looking to God first to get unlost … you know, found … to fill some of your desires the right way today. Searching for God’s truth or settling for empty frauds is your decision, so choose well.
Prayer
Dear Father, I have been searching my entire life, but I have been looking in the wrong places. My searching has led me to some very bad decisions that caused pain and suffering for me and for those I love. I thank You, Father, for the lighthouses you have brought into my life, those who have helped guide me, step by step, to You. I thank You for the new focus of my search. I search for You, Lord. I search for a deeper relationship with You. I pray, Father, for the Stepping Stones community that they, too, may focus their search toward the Truth … toward You, Father. I pray this in the name of Jesus Christ whose Truth became flesh; and all God’s people say – AMEN!
The Truth
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 he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened. Matthew 7:7-8
Then the woman said to Elijah, “Now by this I know that you are a man of God, and that the word of the LORD in your mouth is the truth.” 1 Kings 17:24
And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14