How does one truly seek God with all their heart?  All too often, we seek Him only when trials come.  We go about our lives, doing things our way.  Then when trials come, we pray.  But is that truly seeking God with all our heart?  What happens when God’s answer is no.  Do we trust Him to know what is best?  Hebrews 11: 6 tells us: “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”  However, what does it mean to diligently seek Him.  We must first recognize that God is Sovereign.  He is perfect righteousness and His desire is to transform us into the likeness of His Son; that, we might rejoice in His Presence for all of eternity.

 

This is certainly not a frivolous seeking Him, only when we face trials.  But, rather, it is to seek Him first and foremost as Lord of our lives.  We must turn from our sin and seek God.  His will for our life, even if His will is different than our selfish desires.  Salvation is not just a way to avoid the damnations of hell.  Instead, we are to seek God with all our heart and trust His Sovereign Grace, accepting Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.  He is the only way to the Father. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me” (John 14:6).

 

Salvation is recognizing that I am a sinner.  Jesus Christ-God incarnate, died on the cross to pay the penalty for my sin and won the victory over sin and death. Then, by faith, accepting His gift of salvation, I now have a relationship with God.

 

SEEK GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART

 

 

David wrote in Psalm 27: 7-8 “Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice: have mercy also upon me and answer me. When thou saidst, “Seek ye my face’; my heart said unto thee, ‘Thy face, Lord, will I seek.”   If we truly understand the gift of Salvation that we are given, we will fall before Him in adoration and praise.  We will want to know Him more. That means, we will seek God when life is filled with blessings as much as when life turns upside down.  We will trust His plan in our life, even when we do not understand.  So, how do we seek God?

 

God said, “If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

 

Note, we are to humble ourselves, pray, seek His face and turn from our wicked ways.  Oh, certainly I cannot in my own power and strength overcome sin in my life.  But God can.  He has promised to every believer that His Holy Spirit will indwell us.  The Holy Spirit in us can overcome sin in our life.  But how do we release this power?  By seeking God in prayer and reading His Word.  Therein lies all the power we need.

 

Warning!

 

Proverbs 1:24-30

“Because I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you. Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early, but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the Lord: They would none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof.”

 

To seek God only as a “fixer” of problems, ignoring His counsel and denying Christ as the only means of Salvation is not how to truly seek God. The first commandment is to “love the Lord your God with all of thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind” (Matthew 22:37).  Therefore, He is our greatest treasure and to seek God is to conform to His will; trusting Him to perform in and through us what we cannot do ourselves.  We are to abide in Jesus Christ and His sacrificial love for us.

Concluding Thoughts:

First and foremost, do you know Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior?  If not, that is my prayer for you.  If you do, I pray you seek Him by spending time with Him each day.

DO YOU KNOW CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOR?

If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior: I urge you to go to my page titled How to Be Saved by clicking on this link. Because there is nothing more important than this, I urge you to seek Him today.

ARE YOU IN OF NEED PRAYER?

If you have a prayer request email me by clicking here

Or if you would like to tell me your story or thoughts  comment here

For  previous posts

How to Labor with Joy: not in vain

Or for poetry

My One Desire: All Else I Count But Loss

Books Available

If you want to know more about books I have written: You can read more about each one at: Book Resources.

Or for inspirational photos or home decor click here.

©Effie Darlene Barba, 2018
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned except for my own books. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Footnotes and Credits

Introduction Photo by Peter Dlhy on Unsplash

On this Labor Day, I thought it best to review some of the scriptures concerning labor.  Because as God’s children, we are called to labor.  We are to diligently perform the job we have been so blessed by God with here on earth.  Furthermore, we are called to labor for the Kingdom of God as well.  In all that we do, do it unto the Lord.   “And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ” (Colossians 3:23-24).

Blessings for Our Labor

Psalm 128 (NKJV): 1 Blessed is everyone who fears the Lord,
Who walks in His ways.² When you eat the ^[a]labor of your hands,
You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.
³ Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine
In the very heart of your house,
Your children like olive plants
All around your table.
⁴ Behold, thus shall the man be blessed
Who fears the Lord.

The labor of the righteous leads to life,
The wages of the wicked to sin. Proverbs 10:16 (NKJV)

 

Do Not Labor in Vain

 

Unless the Lord builds the house,
They labor in vain who build it;
Unless the Lord guards the city,
The watchman stays awake in vain. Psalm 127:1 (NKJV)

 

³⁶ But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were ^[a]weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd. ³⁷ Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. ³⁸ Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.”  Matthew 9 (NKJV)

 

²⁷ All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. ²⁸ Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. ²⁹ Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am ^[a]gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  Matthew 11

True Labor of God

²⁶ Jesus answered them and said, “Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled. ²⁷ Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him.”²⁸Then they said to Him, “What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?”²⁹ Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom He sent”  John 6 (NKJV).

We, who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, are to spread the gospel; because, we love Him.  We cannot be silent; yet, we must tell of Him in word and deed.  Therefore, consider all that you do and do it as unto the Lord.

Victory for Our Labor

⁵⁷ But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.⁵⁸ Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.  1 Corinthians 15:58 (NKJV)

DO YOU KNOW CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOR?

If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior: I urge you to go to my page titled How to Be Saved by clicking on this link. Because there is nothing more important than this, I urge you to seek Him today.

ARE YOU IN OF NEED PRAYER?

If you have a prayer request email me by clicking here

Or if you would like to tell me your story or thoughts  comment here

For  previous posts

What About Works in the Life of the Believer?

Worthless Works, Humble Servants, and the Power of Christ

A Worker’s Prayer-God’s Grace to Serve

Labor to Rest

Or for poetry

What About the Unknown Servants

One Nurse’s Choice to Serve

Alive with Hope and Joy

 

Do You Want to Know the Secret to Abiding Steadfast Joy?

ABIDING, STEADFAST JOY

A labor of love, this book provides you with 3 foundations of truth from the scripture which once known will provide you with abiding, steadfast joy. Undaunted by the storms of life; your joy will overflow.

 

 

 

WHEN INJUSTICE AND VIOLENCE REIGN:
Through a study of Nahum, Habukkuk, and Zephaniah; I brought their message into our modern times. Answering the questions of “Why, God?”

Providing a foundation of faith and hope; even, as we see so much evil in the world and in our nation. With so much sorrow and despair, this book I wrote to guide you into discovering God’s Perfect Plan of love; amid this chaotic world filled with life’s storms.

You may click on the picture for more information on either of these books.

ANOTHER Book Available

You can find this and all my books on Amazon.com, search Effie Darlene Barba or click this link to be taken there

OTHER RESOURCES AVAILABLE

If you want to know more about other books I have written: You can read more about each one at: Book Resources.

Or for inspirational photos or home decor click here.

©Effie Darlene Barba, 2018
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned except for my own books. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Footnotes and Credits

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Photo by Samuel Giacomelli on Unsplash

There was a time when I questioned, “Why, Lord?” Why did Mom suffer so from her bipolar disease?  What could have been the purpose of Pete’s suffering? To the world, it appeared that this horrid disease won.  But you see, it did not.  What if every sorrow, tear, or pain leads to one finding eternal rest in the arms of a Sovereign God of love.  Then, wasn’t it worth every sorrow, tear, or pain traversed along this road of life?  God knows each heart, willingly bore our pain and sorrows as well.

A Sovereign God of Love Wept

The shortest verse in the Bible is “Jesus Wept” (John 11:35).  So, often we hear preachers teach that therein Jesus wept over the death of his friend Lazarus.  And that He wept because He felt the sorrow of all of those around Him.  Yet, as Ken Davis pointed out in “It’s Enough to Make A Grown Man Cry”, Jesus knew that He would raise Lazarus from the dead.  Therefore, He wept because His disciples could not see the full truth.  He, the Sovereign God of Love, was and is eternal life to all who believe.  We can trust fully and rest in that truth.  Every detail of our life, He is in control and only He can see the final portrait.

Each tear we shed.  The fears, sorrows, and pains we face. He is using each thread to form a tapestry of great beauty-a portrait of God’s only son.  A Sovereign God of Love knows precisely what is needed to transform each heart into one that can fully trust in and rejoice in Him for all of eternity.  This life is but a blink in time compared to eternity.   Jesus wept because His friends and disciples could not fully comprehend the truth: they could rest and find joy even in their sorrow.  Because the Sovereign God of love was and is still on His throne.  Oh, how it must pain God each time I anxiously wonder in fear asking, “Why, Lord?” instead of trusting Him.  I am certain that Jesus has wept each time I doubted His plan.

A Lesson from God in a Bipolar World

Continue reading How to Find Rest in a Sovereign God of Love →

As I often remind myself and you, faith is knowing God IS and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  Our faith and our ability to love Him falters on both truths all too often.  We either do not fully believe that He is the Almighty, Sovereign God of the universe or that He really, truly loves us.  If we did, we would be incapable of not demonstrating our love for Him through trusting Him, joyfully seeking to be in His presence, and resting fully in His Sovereign Grace.  So, how can we truly love God with all our heart, our mind and our strength.

When questioned concerning the commandments, Jesus answered, “The first of all the commandments is…The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and will all thy soul, and will all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment, And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Mark 12:29-31).

The whole point is we cannot love our family, our friends, or our neighbors unless we first learn to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.  But what does “to love God” look like?

To Love God with All Your Heart

Continue reading How to Love God with all Your Heart →

If indeed we are to love as Jesus loved, we will pay a price as well.  For the truest of loves, is a costly love.  It willingly lays aside all selfish desire for the good of the beloved. Always seeking their needs, their enrichment, and laying aside our own.  Oh, there are moments perhaps that we humans can achieve that.  However, always?  That requires more than this human heart can achieve in its own strength.  Yet, Jesus Christ demonstrated for us what a costly love looks like.  Furthermore, He has promised to be there in us to guide us to that place of perfect love in Him and through His mighty power within us.  Beyond that, He has promised that all the pain, sorrow and suffering that true love may bring, it is worth it in the end; because, of the joy that we shall find there.

WHAT IS COSTLY LOVE?

We all understand what C. S. Lewis ascribes in His book The Four Loves regarding the vulnerability and pain love may bring.  Regarding love,

“There is no safe investment. To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will certainly be wrung and possibly be broken.  If you want to make sure of keeping it intact, you must give your heart to no one, not even to an animal.  Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements; lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness.

But in that casket-safe, dark, motionless, airless—it will change.  It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable.  The alternative to tragedy, or at least to the risk of tragedy, is damnation.  The only place outside Heaven where you can be perfectly safe from all the dangers and perturbations of love is Hell.”[1]

Certainly, we would consider that costly love; because our hearts can be vulnerable and thereby breakable.  But what I mean by costly love goes much further than that.

The True Cost of Costly Love

To love like Christ loves, as He commanded His apostles in John 13:34. “A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.”

How did Christ love?  If we are to imitate Him, we must see how He loved them.  He loved them when they were foolish, the same as when they got it right.  (More often were they foolish than right).  He ever so gently guided them to see and know the truth.  Patiently, gently He cared for them; although, He knew perfectly when to allow them to stumble that they might learn to walk boldly.  Furthermore, He humbly served them, never placing His physical needs above theirs.  He loved them when they were at their worst and with compassion guided them to become their best in Him, through faith.  Also, He lived the example for them both in His devotion to prayer and obedience to the Father.

Then, came the ultimate act of costly love.  He died that they might be saved.  Bearing the full brunt of the penalty due us, He laid down His life that we might gain ours.

“For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commandeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him” (Romans 5:7-9).

We are also commanded to “take up our cross daily to follow Him” (Luke 9:23).  Our cross is to die to self, that He might live through us.  God desires to “perfect” us in love.

The Greatest Treasure to be Found

Dying to self is the only way to learn to truly love. Indeed, true love is a costly love; however, it is so worth finding.  Only there can we rise above the circumstances and trials of this life, to soar on wings like eagles with God’s breath supporting and guiding our flight.  Therein, we find His abiding, steadfast joy no matter how difficult the circumstance or how fragile our hearts may feel.  Then, one day when we stand before Him, we will know just how great a treasure we have found.

“When we see the face of God we shall know that we have always known it.  He has been a party to, has made, sustained and moved moment by moment within, all our earthly experiences of innocent love.  All that was true love in them was, even on earth, far more His than ours, and ours only because His.  In Heaven there will be no anguish and no duty of turning away from our earthly Beloveds. First, because we shall have turned already; from the portraits to the Original, from the rivulets to the Fountain, from the creatures He made loveable to Love Himself.  But secondly, because we shall find them all in Him.  By loving Him more than them we shall love them more than we now do.”  C. S. Lewis[2]

Ah, but I daresay the same is true here on earth.  I cannot truly love another with a Christ like love; until, I grasp the truth of God’s love.  Yes, true love is a costly love; but, it is well worth the cost-whatever that may be.

DO YOU KNOW CHRIST AS YOUR SAVIOR?

If you don’t know Jesus Christ as your Savior: I urge you to go to my page titled How to Be Saved by clicking on this link. Because there is nothing more important than this, I urge you to seek Him today.

ARE YOU IN OF NEED PRAYER?

If you have a prayer request email me by clicking here

Or if you would like to tell me your story or thoughts  comment here

For  previous posts regarding  God’s love

Lessons of Love From the Heart of a Child

What does Agape Love Really Look Like?

5 Lessons from God regarding Loving like Jesus

Being Rooted and Grounded in the Magnitude of God’s Love

Or for poetry

Out of the Ashes

To Be Made Perfect in Love

Do You Want to Know the Secret to Abiding Steadfast Joy?

ABIDING, STEADFAST JOY

A labor of love, this book provides you with 3 foundations of truth from the scripture which once known will provide you with abiding, steadfast joy. Undaunted by the storms of life; your joy will overflow.

 

 

 

WHEN INJUSTICE AND VIOLENCE REIGN:
Through a study of Nahum, Habukkuk, and Zephaniah; I brought their message into our modern times. Answering the questions of “Why, God?”

Providing a foundation of faith and hope; even, as we see so much evil in the world and in our nation. With so much sorrow and despair, this book I wrote to guide you into discovering God’s Perfect Plan of love; amid this chaotic world filled with life’s storms.

You may click on the picture for more information on either of these books.

ANOTHER Book Available

You can find this and all my books on Amazon.com, search Effie Darlene Barba or click this link to be taken there

OTHER RESOURCES AVAILABLE

If you want to know more about other books I have written: You can read more about each one at: Book Resources.

Or for inspirational photos or home decor click here.

©Effie Darlene Barba, 2018
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned except for my own books. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Footnotes and Credits

Picture creation by Ronin Ron Custom Art  the words I added.

[1] C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves, (1960), in The Beloved Works of C.S. Lewis, (Edison, NJ: Inspirational Press, 2004)., 278-279.

[2] C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves, (1960), in The Beloved Works of C.S. Lewis, (Edison, NJ: Inspirational Press, 2004)., 288.