As I mentioned at the end of yesterday’s devotion, the devotion was too long to have it as one. So I made the decision after writing it to split it into two.  This is a continuation of yesterday’s devotion.

As we talk about increasing versus decreasing our faith; as we talk about just “going through” versus “growing through” something, I’d like to focus on a very familiar passage of Scripture.  I know these verses can be overused (often consigned to “Jesus junk”), or even misused (especially by charlatans), but please read these verses S-L-O-W-L-Y and meditate on them as you read:

‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ says the Lord, ‘plans for prosperity and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.”  Jeremiah 29:11-14 (NASB2020)

People latch onto that prosperity word and name-it and claim-it and think God is obligated to give material prosperity. But do you see the latter part? “You will call.” “You will seek.” “You will find.”

God wants us to pursue Him. Sort of like what is said of David: “He is a man after my own heart.”  David pursued God with a passion. Sure, he stumbled, but his passionate God-heart always brought him back to the heart of worship. Instead of expecting God to drop things in our lap because we think (or someone has told us) He is obligated to do so, let’s throw that junk aside and have a heart that pursues Him.

If I remember correctly, did Someone not say, “If you seek you will find”?

“Father, may my heart run after you with an undeniable passion.”

Late addition: after reading Psalms today I feel I need to add something to this devotion. In my morning reading today, I read the following words: “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for You, God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?”  Psalm 42:1-2 (NASB2020) The picture of the tired, desperately thirsty deer running from his “hunter” who finally reaches water where he can refresh his spirit, is one that should picture me, you.  We are being pursued every day by forces designed to take us down and out, to capture or “kill” us. We MUST find our rest, our refreshment in the Father.