A Great Theme for 2018: Seek God Deliberately

During his awesome New Year message at Father’s House Church, Seth Hester repeatedly used a word I’ve heard many times in sermons of his dad Rick Hester.  (It was inspiring hearing this young missionary mention his upbringing in our church, and it was even more exciting to hear evidence that he’s actually been paying attention to his dear old dad, one of the most genuine men of God I know.)

Deliberate.

Thanks to Seth for reminding me of that blessed word. I’m going to make it my theme for 2018.

God asks us to be deliberate in our devotion for him. That means He doesn’t want to be our after thought. He expects to be our ONLY thought.

Of course the English teacher in me returns to David Henry Thoreau almost every time I hear mention of “deliberate.”

“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived,” Thoreau said in his famous Walden.

That great sentence also defines the type of relationship God offers each of us.

When I seek Him deliberately at every turn, He never fails to teach me and guide me. And I know that He is my very reason for living.

To the uninitiated, this will seem strange, I’m sure. That’s okay. Thoreau’s contemporaries in Concord, likewise, didn’t understand him either.

Lord, thank you for the unlimited, unfathomable gifts you offer when I go deliberately after you. May I (and all of us) always remember that you are enough.