Am I Diligently Seeking Him?

 “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” (Hebrews 11:6)

In Hebrews 11:6, the Bible says that God is a rewarder of those who “diligently seek Him”. What does the word diligent mean? Merriam-Webster defines diligent as “characterized by steady, earnest, and energetic effort”. A synonym for diligent is painstaking which means “done with great care and thoroughness”. (dictionary.com) My grandma used to “take great pains” to make sure everything was perfect for our Christmas Eve gathering at her house. Everything was in its perfect place…..every decoration and every ornament. The food was cooked to perfection. Her Christmas tree was absolutely gorgeous, as was the entire house. The presents were wrapped beautifully. She was diligent in making sure that Christmas Eve was magical for all of us. My children were 11 and 8 when she passed away, and they still talk about and miss Christmas Eve at Grandma’s house. Her diligence made an impact on them as it did to all of us. Immaculate is the word for her house on Christmas Eve! Why? Why would she work so diligently/painstakingly to make everything so beautiful and perfect? The answer is simply one word…..love! Interestly, the word diligent originates from the latin word diligere which means “to value or esteem highly” or “to love”. (Merriam-Webster) She diligently did special things for us, because she loved us so much. She held all of us in high esteem! I want to be just like her in that way. 

So…..when we look at Hebrews 11:6, what does it mean to diligently search for something or someone? When I looked up Hebrews 11:6 on blueletterbible.org, I was searching for the Greek word meaning diligently, but it gave me the word for the entire phrase “diligently seek Him” which is ekzeteo. (ek-zay-teh’-o) This phrase is used interchangeably with the words or phrases, require, seek after, seek carefully, or enquire. Biblically, it can mean, to search for, to investigate, to scrutinize, to seek out for one’s self, to beg or to crave. Wow…..that last meaning…..to crave. So….to diligently seek God means to crave God. This is something I need to ask myself. Do I crave my Creator? 

Here are some other verses where the Greek word ekzeteo is used. All of them are interesting and relevant to this study of Hebrews 11:6. In Luke 11:50-51, Jesus had just been questioned by lawyers in a condescending way. He responds with a couple of “woe to you” statements, and then proceeds to authenticate the entire old testament by mentioning “the blood of all the prophets that was shed from the foundation of the world…..from the blood of Abel (the first martyr in the OT) to the blood of Zechariah (the last martyr in the OT)”, even stating where Zechariah specifically died, “between the altar and the temple” ! He told those lawyers that all that blood would be required of their generation! “It will be required” equals “diligently seeking”! Scary for them, isn’t it? I only mention these verses, because who better to authenticate the prophets of old than Jesus Christ Himself? Now, back to our subject at hand. 

In Acts 15:17, James takes the lead in the conflict over whether the Gentiles should be circumcised by using Isaiah 11:10 as a reference to say this, “so that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by My name, says the Lord who does all these things.” “Seek the Lord” equals “diligently seek Him”. Everyone has the right to seek the Lord, even the Gentiles. 

In Romans 3:11, Paul is trying to get across the point that all have sinned, both Jews and Gentiles when he says, “There is none who understands; there is none who seeks after God.” In this passage, Paul is saying that no one truly “diligently seeks God”. He’s not saying that we are incapable of seeking God. He is simply making the point that we are all flawed, imperfect people, and are equal in the eyes of God no matter what our lineage or heritage is. We all need a Savior. The Gentiles had just as much right to “diligently seek Him” as the Jews. It is the same for us today. No matter what walk of life a person comes from, he/she has just as much right as we do to hear the gospel, and be given the opportunity to be saved and go to heaven…..no matter what they have done in this life. 

The next passage comes from the writer of Hebrews. Hebrews 12:16-17 tells us not to take our inheritance/salvation lightly the way that Esau took his  inheritance lightly, and sold it for a bowl of soup. Verse 17 says, “For you know that afterward, when he wanted to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no place for repentance, though he sought it diligently with tears.” Esau “sought it diligently with tears”. He wanted his inheritance back, but it was too late. He couldn’t go back. I shudder to think of the people on judgment day who will “diligently seek Him” in that moment, but it will be too late. Is putting worldly things ahead of God sort of like selling our inheritance for a bowl of soup? Just food for thought. If you aren’t a Christian, don’t wait. You still have time to obtain your inheritance, which is a home in heaven someday, while you are alive on this earth. If you are a Christian, don’t let that inheritance slip away from you the way that Esau did. 

One more example….in 1 Peter 1, Peter is speaking to the dispersed Christians of Pontus, Galatia, Capadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. (1 Peter 1:1) He is telling them how lucky they are to be in the family of God. He is building them up and encouraging them as they are in exile. There are mixed opinions as to whether Peter is writing to Gentiles or Jews, but my research is leaning towards exiled Jewish Christians, since Peter was considered the apostle to the Jews. Also, in the verse that I am referencing for the purposes of this study, Peter mentions “the prophets” which would mean more to the Jews than it would to the Gentiles. That is just my observation. Anyway, 1 Peter 1:10 says this, “Of this salvation the prophets have inquired and searched carefully, who prophesied of the grace that would come to you…..” The word “inquired” and the phrase “searched carefully” are both the same as the phrase “diligently seek Him” in the Greek. Peter is expressing to them how very fortunate they are to be living in the time that they are. What Peter is trying to say is this…..the prophets could only get a glimpse of what was coming through Christ, but you guys…..you all are living under the grace of Jesus Christ. That is something that we need to realize as well. We need to realize how fortunate we are to be living right now at this time, and “diligently seek Him” while we have the opportunity.

So….what does it look like to diligently seek something? We can use some of the parables of Jesus to illustrate what this phrase “diligently seeking” means. The parable of the lost coin and the lost sheep illustrate the point that I am trying to make really well. (Luke 15:1-10)  In both situations, the thing that was lost was painstakingly searched for. The shepherd had 100 sheep to tend to, but when he realized that one was lost, he left the 99 and went out searching diligently for that one lone sheep who had gone astray. The woman with the ten coins had only lost one of her coins, but she searched the entire house diligently until she found it. And yes….I know the meaning behind these parables is about lost souls being saved, but another meaning behind these parables is that we diligently seek what is important to us, right? Another example would be if our child got lost in a store. We turn around for a second, and then he/she is gone. We begin to diligently seek that child with everything inside of us. Or, we wake up in the morning, go to the back door, and our beloved pet is not in the yard. We search everywhere looking for him/her. We put up flyers. We post it on Facebook. We drive around everywhere searching. You see….we put our heart into what we consider to be treasure, don’t we? Matthew 6:21 says this, “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” So…..is Jesus my treasure? Is God’s Word the treasure chest where I can find my treasure…..my Savior…..my Jesus? Am I diligently seeking Jesus? Am I striving to learn more and more about Him every day? Am I listening to His voice? Am I living by His teachings? 

Why should we diligently seek God? Well….for one thing….God says that He will reward us if we diligently seek Him. I know without a shadow of a doubt that I want the creator of the universe to reward me. Do you? I want the reward of heaven someday. Do you? Another reason to diligently seek God is because He has been diligent in His love for us since before the beginning of time. Ephesians 1:4 says that “he chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love…..” This means that God knew ahead of time who would choose Him, who would seek Him, and who would obey His gospel. God has given each of us free will…..the freedom to choose to follow Him or not. God never wanted robots. He wants people who actively choose Him. God knew before He ever created anything who would use their free will to love Him, seek Him, and put Him first, because He knows everything. (1 John 3:12) “His understanding is beyond measure.” (Psalm 147:5) Think about how diligent God was in preserving the lineage of Christ. And why did He preserve that lineage? He preserved it so that we could have Jesus as our Savior! So in essence….everything that He has done has been for me personally…..and for you personally. He knew there was no other way. But why? Why is there no other way, you ask? Well….let’s use a movie scene to illustrate this point. If you are a Marvel fan, you will get this. If not, you need to watch it. At the end of the movie “Avengers: Endgame”, Dr. Strange tells Tony Stark, aka Ironman, that there is only one scenario out of 14 million where they win the war against Thanos, and get everyone back who “blipped” (turned to ash) in the previous movie called “Infinity War”. One of those who blipped was young Peter Parker, aka Spiderman, who was basically like a son to Tony. That one scenario required Tony Stark to die to which Tony agreed. Dr. Strange saw the big picture. He could see how every scenario would turn out. Now that is a movie, and we accept those terms within this movie. But can we accept this answer when it comes to reality and God? The answer is…..we don’t have a choice. We have to. Maybe God saw 14 million scenarios play out in a millisecond and only one of those scenarios would save us. God sees the big picture, and He knew that sending His Son to die for our sins was the only way to bring us to Him. I trust Him. I know that He knows what is best for all of us. Do I understand everything that He has done? No, of course not, but I don’t have to understand it all. His ways are higher than my ways, and His thoughts are higher than my thoughts. (Isaiah 55:9) Someday….I feel certain that I will understand it all. But right now….everything here belongs to Him. And I know what I need to know. I am on a “need to know” basis, and that is ok with me. Let’s ponder these questions. How many times did God’s people, the Israelites, turn to worshipping idols? How many times did they complain and grumble after all God did for them? How many times did God take them back when they begged for His forgiveness? How many promises did they break to God? What about me and my promises to Him? Have I kept all of them? How many times do I forget to thank Him? How many times do I put worldly things ahead of Him? Am I not just as hard to deal with as the Israelites of old? Just something to think about……

Thank you Father for your patience. Thank you for desiring to save us. Thank you for keeping your promises to us. (2 Peter 3:9) Please help me to keep my promises to you. Please help me to diligently seek You in everything I do.

I just had to stop and pray for a moment. So…..what does “diligently seeking Him” look like in my life? Let’s go back to the Latin origin of the word diligent….diligere. It means to love or to highly esteem. So……what is God asking us to do when He asks us to diligently seek Him? What does He want from us? The answer is love! He wants our love! What does that love look like? In order to diligently seek Jesus/God, we have to love His Kingdom here on earth. We have to love the Lord’s church. We cannot say that we love Jesus, and then constantly forsake the assembly of the Church that He died for. We have to make worship and bible study services on Sunday morning, Sunday evening, and Wednesday night the top priority in our lives, not only for God, but for our brothers and sisters in Christ as well. Consider Hebrews 10:24-25, “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” We can’t just go when it is convenient. I guarantee it will become less and less convenient the more times we miss. Our hearts will get more and more hardened the more times we allow other things to take precedence over God. Sometimes there are circumstances that are out of our control that keep us away, like sickness or our work schedule, but we should make every effort to be at every service that we can possibly be at. Being faithful to the Lord’s church is a valuable part of “diligently seeking Him”. We need to support all the works of our congregation such as gospel meetings and vacation bible schools. We need to be willing to step up and help in whatever capacity our time and talents allow. We will put in the extra effort for His Kingdom if we truly love Jesus. Think about the worldly things that we put our time and attention into…..do we put that kind of time and attention into the Lord’s church? If I answer this question honestly for myself…..the answer is “no, I don’t”. I own my failures, and I know I have to do better. Now….all that being said…..can we be at every service, and just be going through the motions? Yes, we can! That was me for so many years! And sometimes I still get in ruts where I feel like I’m just going through the motions. Life happens…..and I falter. We all do. Thank goodness for God’s patience. Let’s just make sure we aren’t staying in that rut. We have to drive ourselves out of that rut, and back to God. I know that I can never earn my way into heaven through attending services or performing any other works of merit here on earth, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t have to put forth any effort while I’m here. God sees and appreciates our efforts, and the motives behind them. I do not want to stand before God someday having missed worship and bible class services for just any reason that comes up. Can I diligently seek God, and at the same time…..not put “going to church” as a top priority? Nope. I should not try and fool myself into thinking that I can do this anymore…..ever again.

To diligently seek God/Jesus, we have to have a desire to listen to God through His Word on our own….outside of worship and bible class assemblies. Honestly, attending services three times per week like we are punching a clock is the bare minimum that we can do. I’m speaking to myself here. Sometimes I get so caught up in going through the motions of life in general, that I am not engaged in the worship or the bible study. It’s like I sit down on the pew, and I say to myself, “ok….I’m here Lord”. We are simply so spent and overwhelmed with life that our “ok….I’m here Lord” is simply all there is left of us that day. And, don’t get me wrong, sometimes that is all we have to give, and God knows that. He sees every effort we make. But…..we cannot allow ourselves to stay in that condition. We have to work our way through those tough times to a better place, and this is where personal bible study comes in. When I am stuck in a rut, it is usually because I am allowing myself to be “conformed to this world” too much. At that point, I have to allow myself to be “transformed by the renewing of my mind”. (Romans 12:2)  How do I do this? Well…..I have to make a conscious effort to get in God’s Word on my own, and get my mind right! We have to protect our minds from the world, and the only way to do that is through God’s Word. Three to four hours in the church building each week as compared to eighty-four hours out in the world each week is a big difference. (12 hrs each day X 7 days per week) 2 Timothy 2:15 says this, “Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” (NKJV) Let’s focus on the words “be diligent” for a moment. This phrase comes from the Greek word spoudazo which is also translated as “study”. The King James Version says, “Study to show thyself approved unto God…..” Other words or phrases that are parallel to this phrase are endeavor, labour, make effort, to exert one’s self, and make haste. So….it sounds like studying the Bible is involved in “diligently seeking Him”. It takes effort on our part. Personal bible study looks different for everyone. Everyone has different ways of studying God’s Word that work for them, such as…..reading through the Bible in a year, listening to the Bible on a phone or ipad, topical Bible studies, character studies, picking a verse each day to study in depth, picking a book of the Bible to study each month, watching sermons on youtube, listening to Christian podcasts, scripture writing, studying through books written by Christian authors, and…..I have to mention the technique that I love most, researching and writing about God’s Word. I also love many of the other study methods above as well. It doesn’t matter how we study, as long as we study, and be sure we are using the Bible as our main source of information.

Another way to be diligent in seeking God is to have an active prayer life daily. God wants us to talk to Him. He wants to hear it all…..through our good times and bad. He wants to be with us through it all. I mean…..He is our Creator. Why shouldn’t He want to be involved in every facet of our lives? As parents, don’t we want our children to always talk to us, and tell us all about their day. We hang on their every word, don’t we? God hangs on our every word just like we do our own children whether they are grown adults or just beginning to say their first words. Remember….prayer with the right attitude will help bring us peace. Listen to Paul’s words in Philippians 4:6-7, “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” I want the peace that only God can give. Don’t you?

Now…..I want to look at one more way that I believe is involved in “diligently seeking Him”. To diligently seek Jesus, we have to diligently seek to help others while we are here. Let’s look at Matthew 25:37-40. It reads, “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You? Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’ Jesus wants us to help others who are in need physically, and even emotionally/mentally as is within our capacity to do so. He also wants us to look for opportunities to share the gospel with the lost. Sometimes, when we give someone the physical help that they need, it could lead to us being able to give them the spiritual help that they need. If we help someone in need here on earth, it is the same as if we had helped Jesus Himself, right? That is what He said, and I believe Him. So let’s diligently seek ways to help others in any way we possibly can. 

So….I am taking a good hard look at my life. I wouldn’t be writing this if I were not struggling myself. We all struggle in one way or another. Am I diligently seeking my Creator? Do I love His church and His word more than anything else in this world? To love Jesus means to love His church and His word. The things of the world are very alluring, and can become idols quickly if we put them ahead of God. Can we all make some changes to work towards having more diligence in seeking God? It all starts with desire in our hearts. Is the desire there? Remember the Latin word for diligent, “diligere”….”to value or highly esteem” or “to love”? Is there anyone or anything in this world that we should “value” or “love” more than God/Jesus? And how does He know that we love Him? I would think that the time and energy that we put into seeking Him would give Him some idea of just how much we love Him. Just some food for thought today. Love you all! 

Everything that I write begins within me…..convicting myself. It is always something that I am struggling with internally or externally. Writing is my way of working through my struggles. I figure if I put it out there, then maybe someone else is having the same struggles. Maybe through our struggles, we can work through them together. If anyone reading this would like a bible study, please reach out, and I can help you or put in contact with someone who can. 

God’s Plan of Salvation

Below is the plan that God has set forth in His Word, for humankind to receive His grace that leads to salvation and an eternity with God in heaven. This plan is straight from the Bible. 

We have to hear His word. (Romans 10:17) 

Upon hearing the message of Jesus, we believe it. (Mark 16:16) 

Then, we confess Jesus’ name before men. (Matthew 10:32) 

Next, we repent of our sins. (Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19) 

Finally, we are baptized into Christ for the remission of our sins.  (Acts 2:38, Matthew 28:18-20, Mark 16:16, Romans 6:3-4, Acts 22:16, 1 Corinthians 12:13, Galatians 3:26-27) After baptism, God adds us to His church. (Acts 2:47)

Then, we remain faithful in our commitment to Christ until death. (Revelation 2:10, 2 Peter 2:20-22)