Wednesday, December 11, 2024
Seek Him With Your Whole Heart
It is halfway through December and the chances are very high that your life has already been pretty saturated with all the nuances of the season. If you have been at church, you have sung Christmas songs, decorated a tree, watched children sing and act out the Christmas story, and heard two sermons in the Christmas series. This past Sunday we heard about the magi, the “wise men” who were most likely students of the stars, or astrologers who came from the East bearing gifts for the newborn king of the Jews.
These wise men, possibly astronomers, came from the East after they saw the star, or astronomical phenomena that lit up the sky that glorious night. Most scholars believe the magi knew of the birth because they had access to Old Testament scrolls with the prophecies foretelling the birth of the Messiah. They were not Jewish, they were pagan, but they knew the Old Testament prophecies about a promised king. Since it was the capitol city of the Jews, they went to Jerusalem looking for answers. They did not find what they were looking for there. Instead of finding the king they were seeking, they found another king – King Herod – who was upset at their news, as he was the current king of the Jews. King Herod told them he did not know where to find this new king of the Jews.
King Herod wanted to get to the bottom of the mystery so he summoned the Chief priests and scribes, who were religious scholars, to tell him about this new king and where he could find him. They told him that according to prophecy He was to be born in Bethlehem, but the religious scholars were not interested in finding this king of the Jews. King Herod wanted to find him because he felt threatened by the new king.
They left on their journey, and it was not a short journey out to the barn in Bethlehem. It took them a long time – maybe up to two years. But they wanted to find this long awaited King of Kings and bow down and worship Him. They were truly seeking Him with their whole hearts. And at what cost? They were traveling in a pretty large group. It costs money, time, and resources. It may have cost relationships or reputations. The cost of making the journey was worth it to them. The cost of not finding the King of Kings was greater.
In the scripture above, the prophet Jeremiah’s letter to the Jews tells them of a future and a hope they can cling to. It was many generations before Christ’s birth and the Jews turned away from God and turned to idols, leading to their exile. They were seeking the wrong things in the wrong places. Their exile was over now and the prophet Jeremiah gives them some good news - For I know the plans I have for you — this is the Lord’s declaration — plans for your well-being, not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. You will call to me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart. I will be found by you — this is the Lord’s declaration…
Jeremiah was telling them that God had good plans for them and that instead of looking for wrong things in wrong places that would never fill them, they could seek Him to find what they needed. The same is true for us today. We will only end up exiled when we seek something besides God to fill the hole in our lives. But He promises that when we truly seek Him with our whole hearts, we will alwaysfind Him. He doesn’t hide or make it hard. He is right there waiting.
We are all seeking something. It may be popularity, wealth, or love. It may be happiness, satisfaction, or the perfect job, car, spouse, or children. All these things are good gifts from the Lord as long as He remains on the throne of our hearts. But for many, they will never find what they are looking for because they are looking in the wrong place. We will never find the right thing in the wrong place. We will always find the wrong thing in the wrong place like the Israelites. The void we want filled, the hole in our heart we want patched, the loneliness we want to vanish, the loss we want erased – nothing on this earth will help any of this. The King of Kings is the only one who can give us what we want and need.
The Israelites were worshipping idols and looking in all the wrong places for fulfillment. The chief priests and scribes didn’t care when Jesus was born. They were looking inward fulfilling themselves with their own puffed up opinions of themselves. The wise men were seeking, and they found Him and bowed down to worship Him. Can you imagine what that moment was like at the end of that long journey? They were diligent and truly wanted to find the King of Kings.
Are you seeking the King today? As diligently as the wise men? They never gave up or turned back. How desperate are you to find Him and to have what only He offers? Are you willing to pay the cost of following Him?
