“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV)
Last year, a friend asked me to write a song about a man I didn’t know. He figured that it wouldn’t be hard to put something together,
but I was at a total loss for words, not knowing anything about him. So, I made a bunch of phone calls, sent a few emails, and asked lots of questions to find out all I could about this unintroduced stranger.
I found out he was 87 years old, a USMC veteran (Vietnam), commercial fisherman, husband, dad, uncle, and grandfather with lots of
grandkids. The more I found out about him, the more I felt like I knew him and could write about him. It took a couple weeks, but I got the
song done. Without being very intentional in my search, I would’ve been stuck.
When it comes to knowing God, we usually start with a general, but hazy concept of who He is. We really don’t know much about Him
or His ways. Creation “showcases” His power as the Creator, but can’t tell us about God’s love, mercy, forgiveness, holiness, patience, or justice. Those are things we have to discover through His Word and how He works with us.
The more we study God’s Word, the better we understand what God is like. The other way we get more familiar with the Lord is by
getting to know the way He works in our everyday lives. The situations that He puts us in and the experiences He pulls us through all shape our concept of who He is and how He works.
Of course, to someone with no interest in knowing Him, God will remain the hazy, unidentified figure of “the man upstairs.” To know God, we need to seek Him, accept His way, learn about Him, talk to Him in prayer and grow in our knowledge of Him and His ways.
– Kene Jackson
Council Fire is a collaboration with Intertribal Life Ministries and Native Evangelical Fellowship of Canada.
The Council Fire Daily Devotional Book Set is available on the Intertribal Life Ministries website.
Learn more about Council Fire at councilfire365.org