The best choice humans can make is to seek the fullness of life from a relationship with God.
At the same time, we need to avoid misplaced trust in places, things, or people that appear to be godly but lack true spiritual value.
For thus says the Lord to the house of Israel:
Seek me and live,
But do not seek Bethel,
and do not enter into Gilgal
or cross over to Beer-sheba,
for Gilgal shall surely go into exile,
and Bethel shall come to nothing.
Seek the Lord and live,
or he will break out against the house of Joseph like fire,
and it will devour Bethel, with no one to quench it. (Amos 5.4-6)
When Jesus was asked what was the most important commandment, He replied: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” (Matthew 22.37).
There is no greater way to seek God than to live in a relationship with Him characterized by mutual love.
Some of the tools that enhance our relationship with Him are prayer, the meditative reading of the Bible, and obedience to the whispers of the Holy Spirit.
Be Discerning
We might assume that visiting God’s house would be a means to encounter Him. Yet, God explicitly instructed them to not visit Israel’s three main worship sites. The reason? These temples housed idols.
In these locations, the worship of God was blended with the Canaanite religion. Although the Canaanite religion fulfilled the urge for worship, it lacked any moral framework.
In today’s YouTube video, I tell my friend Rudy Ross that I have preached thousands of sermons. You would think I would be a thousand times better because I’ve preached that many sermons. The truth is, I am not.
What truly changes us is not putting our body inside a building, but rather it is putting more Jesus into our lives.
The old revivalist, Billy Sunday, said, “Going to church doesn’t make you any more of a Christian than walking into a garage makes you a car.”
What we need is a relationship with God that develops His character in our lives.
Trust in God Alone
The Old Testament prophets consistently cautioned against trusting and finding security in anything apart from God. Notably, Jesus, who had neither wealth, power, nor a big ego, remains the most significant person to have ever lived.
We must therefore remain vigilant, placing our trust and hope exclusively in God, rather than in our accomplishments, wealth, or the success defined by our ego.
Self-Examination
Henry Blackaby said, “You can’t walk with God and stay where you are.”
Seeking God involves seeking a relationship with Him. It involves knowing and doing His will. When we discover what God is doing on the earth, we choose to align our lives with His activity and join Him in His work.
The payoff for such a life is that we experience God, have the joy of working beside Him as His partner, and receive His “Well done, my good and faithful servant” statement at the end.
YouTube Video
Rudy Ross and I discuss this passage on YouTube today. It is on the Bob Spradling channel.
Real Voices 