A Daily Devotional with Pastor Doug Crouse February 11, 2018 

How Are You Looking? Scripture Reading – Jeremiah 29:12 – 14a (NLT)“In those days when you pray, I will listen. If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you, says the LORD.” 

Often times we greet another person we know by saying something like: ‘Hi, how are you’? Imagine how you might respond if someone you knew came up to you and said, ‘How Are You Looking’?

If you were eating lunch at the time with them, you may take your napkin and wipe the corners of your mouth thinking perhaps that some lunch missed the intended target. If you just took off your jacket, you might want to check to see that your shirt was tucked in or fully untucked (according to your style), or that your fly was – you know what I mean…smile.

However, today’s text and promise from God our Father is not addressing our outer appearances although they too are important for they are a reflection of our hearts. But God is speaking about the attitudes of our hearts when it comes to looking for Him.

Can I be so bold to ask you if you have found Him? Is He near to you? Do you sense His presence? Do you believe God is hearing you if or as you are praying to Him? Do you have the assurance that His grace is more than enough even in your greatest moments of need? If the answer is no to these honest questions, rather than looking up today would you allow the Spirit of God to illumine the desires of your heart and life?

For God has promised that if we look for Him with all of our hearts that He will be found by our honest searching. When Jesus exclaimed, ‘It is finished!’, and the veil was torn from heaven to earth our access into the very presence of God was guaranteed both now and forevermore because of the sacrifice of His son on the cross. So indeed He has found us, and we have found Him, and He will never leave us or forsake us.

This in no way means that we will not experience some storms or even desert seasons along the way. But God will be with us giving us the victory through our risen Lord Jesus as we faithfully look His way! 

Prayer Heavenly Father take me deeper I pray. Show me my heart today. Help me to search for You all along my life’s way. Fill me to overflowing as a testimony that Christ is alive in my life, and use me to cause others to find life in His name I pray. 

Memory Verse:  Mark 12:30 NLT“And you must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.”