Know And Serve The Lord

How well do you know the Lord? Do you serve Him and love Him with your whole heart? Do you want to seek Him out and find answers for your lives? These questions I ask are the demands God gave to our ancestors and instructed them to teach their children all the way down to even our generation!

King David made sure his son Solomon knew what God expected! He said in 1 Chronicles 28:9, “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a whole heart and a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts, and understands every intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will let you find Him; but if you forsake Him, He will reject you forever.

I would like to break this down and go further into each sentence! First, let’s think about knowing God! There are so many verses about knowing God. Jeremiah 9:23-24 says, “ Thus says the Lord: ‘Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, who practices steadfast love, justice, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things, I delight, declares the Lord.”

Our thoughts should be on Him – making Him happy not man -and not the worldly things around us. Our focus should be the goal of going to Heaven! We spend too much time in worry, work, and earthly pleasures. What keeps you from focusing on Him? Our goal is eternal life and in John 17:3 He says, “And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”

One of the biggest ways we can know God is through His word. So many say they have not read His word because it is hard to understand. But as we know today, there are so many resources we can use to understand His word and there are so many versions of the Bible that can be read that can be understood. I tell you I have read at least 4 to 5 versions of the Bible and they are all the same except for a couple that may have added a few books that are not present in any other Bible. We have Bible dictionaries and the concordance that we can use to up our game and knowing what he wants. There is really no excuse to not reading.

The issue lies in going back to the worldly pattern and people not having time, not wanting to, or just not interested in hearing what He has to say. Which on that note and secondly, I am going to go to the verse where He says to seek Him and He will let you find Him. If you forsake Him, He said he will forsake you forever.

Did you know there are at least 30 or more verses in the Bible about seeking Him with your whole heart? To list a few, please read Psalms 119:10, Deuteronomy 4:29, Isaiah 55:6, Matthew 7:7, Proverbs 8:17, Acts 17:27, Hebrews 11:6, 2 Chronicles 15:2, and Philippians 3:8. These are just a few verses of many encouraging us to seek Him! The message through all scripture depends on this and our faith in Him. Do you believe enough to seek?

Another way to seek Him is through prayer. How often do you pray? I pray every day but not enough! Through prayer we are reaching out to Him and disclosing our pure hearts to Him, who actually already knows our hearts He says! He wants us to be humble and bend our wills to come to Him! He wants a direct relationship!

Prayer must be sincere and from the heart! Many misconstrue the verses in Matthew 6:5-15. They jump to the prayer and think it means to keep praying this certain prayer, but if you read before it, you will understand a little better what He meant.

He says, “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues, and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father, who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do, for they think that they will be heard for their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him. Pray like this; “Our Father in heaven, hallowed (holy) be your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day, our daily bread, and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For if you forgive others, their trespasses, your Heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others, their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” First, He says to pray in quiet and not be repetitive of words to draw attention. Remember we are not to boast by being showy, but to ask of things in our hearts. Second, He says to pray LIKE this being an example not to just repeat these words over and over – prayer has to have meaning! And thirdly, in that prayer we are to thank Him, we ask Him for our needs in His will, and we ask for forgiveness.

God knows us inside and out! For He says even He knows how many strands of hair we have! Luke 12:7 says, “Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.” He knows us completely! Scary huh? Are we worthy of Him? Yes we are! He loves us so much and wants us to be apart of Him! We have to choose Him!

And finally, we are to serve Him! How in this world can we, being so lowly, serve Him the Almighty? 1 Peter 4:10 says, “As each has received a gift, use it to serve one another, as good stewards of God’s varied grace.” We are each given a gift, or a talent that we might have, to serve one another here on this earth. There are some that are given the gift of workmanship with wood. Some have the gift of singing, and we have Christian musicians who sing Godly music or write them. Some were given the gift of being doctors and nurses and being able to handle nasty scenes, just like our fireman policeman. We are each given a certain gift that we must figure out what we are good at and enjoy and not waste it, but use it for His good here on earth. This is an important way to serve Him and show our love He wants us to as His example of Love for us.

We are responsible for spreading His word to the next generation! When you seek Him, you become more knowledgeable and will be able to pass this precious gift of our Lord to future generations! It is our responsibility!

Galatians 5:13 says to serve through love. Proverbs 19:17 says whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and He will repay Him for his deed.” Don’t we want that reward from Him? Matthew 10:42 says, “And if anyone even gives a cup of water to one of these little ones who is My disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.”

He says not to waste your talent and use it! Examine yourselves and figure out what you were blessed with so you can share that! This is why I write! I fail miserably at times and have fallen short, but I keep going! You can too!

We are commanded to seek Him and know Him. John 14:12 says,”Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in Me, will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will He do, because I m going to the Father.” Through Jesus we re able! Seek Him and allow Him to fill your heart! Do what you can for His sake! Our goal is Heaven!