Hope for the Seeker

A new school year. For the most part, my students are eager to be at school and hopeful they will succeed and enjoy their year. They look forward to all the adventures the school year brings.

I also have many hopes and dreams for my students. I want to build a strong classroom community and I want them to grow and learn throughout the year. I hope that they will be caring and kind to one another. My aim is that they will become the best students possible.

Do these hopes come to fruition if I sit and do nothing? Not at all. It takes many hours of hard work to help my students learn both academics and character education. I need to prepare engaging lessons and materials to entice them to build their knowledge and skills. It takes me time to get to know each of my students and their specific needs.

It is similar in our Christian walk. Hope doesn’t just drop in our laps. The writer of the book of Lamentations puts it this way:

“The Lord is good to those whose hope is in Him, to the one who seeks Him.” (3:25 NIV)

What does it mean to seek the Lord?

We don’t expect to find pizza a clothing store. We need to be looking in the right places. Where are appropriate places to find God? Being with God’s people in His house is a good start. Taking time in God’s Word is another. Communing with God in prayer is also important.

To earnestly seek God, we need to make it more than a cursory search. Scripture advises:

“Now devote your heart and soul to seeking the Lord your God.” (1 Chronicles 22:19a NIV)

God promises to be there when we seek Him with all our hearts. He is waiting there to supply the hope we need to cope with our day to day lives.

To devote ourselves to something means to give a large part of our lives toward it. Seeking God should not be an afterthought, but our main concern.

Do you ever find yourself pushing God aside in those hectic moments of life? I do. I’m right in there with requests when things are rough, but when things are relatively fine, not so much.

God wants us to have a close relationship with Him ALL the time. Taking more time to seek Him is mandatory as we seek hope in this dark world.

Draw closer to Him and He will respond. Hope is attainable if we just reach out for it in the right places.

Enter your email below and don’t miss out on the next blog posts.

We post weekly – Offering hope and encouragement.