Written by Holly Madden, LeadHer Local Director. Connect with Holly on Instagram.
Inside you lingers this deep longing to feel like you are made for more. Growing more and more with each passing year- you crave affirmation that your life has meaning, that your actions make a difference. Life is not just about survival or about breathing. Every time you inhale, the heavens scream that there is still a reason you are here. You have purpose.
If you’re anything like me, in you has been a void that you have tried to fill over and over again. With a career, a relationship, a friendship, an education, a church, a baby, a mission trip, or a house. You have sought after titles, added new experiences to your resume, and still there is something missing. This void is unfair as you long for satisfaction, but to feel like you have come to the end of your journey would deny your adventurous heart it’s very reason for thriving. You are tired. But you are determined.
The purpose of this void is not a lifetime of pursuit met by failure, but a puzzle leading our hearts to embark on a journey of finding our creator. It is on this journey that we discover that as we come to know Him more and more, we have found the only missing piece that fits the void. The void is not filled because of our belief’s one time decision of salvation, but by the constant process of seeking to know God more and more. This is because as we seek, the divide of the satisfaction we find in the world grows greater and greater. The more we love the God who gave us breath, the more of Him we need to keep breathing. Our need for our Savior grows the more time we spend with Him.
When religion replaces a relationship and we find ourselves meeting our weekly quota of church, small group, and a daily devotion, we will discover the emptiness in us will begin to grow. The void beckons to be filled and our searching eyes may look to other idols that will only temporarily fill the space designed to hold our Creator. You were not created for a religious routine. God is not honored by your perfect church attendance, He longs for your presence. God is not satisfied by your one-way prayers, He longs for a conversation with you.
Listen to the longing in David’s heart as he wrote this Psalm:
“ I seek you with all my heart;
do not let me stray from your commands.
I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.
Praise be to you, Lord;
teach me your decrees. “ Psalm 119:10-12 NIV
I seek you with all my heart
Physically, our hearts provide the rest of our body with the oxygenated blood necessary to be alive. Our heart, lungs, brain, and other organs function as a team, but our hearts are the muscle that takes the oxygen our lungs provides, and the signals our brain gives off, and it pushes the blood to where it needs to go. In our heart, there is a strength that never sleeps and never stops because to take a break would render us lifeless.
When we seek God with all our heart, it takes commitment and strength that we find in God the more of Him we seek. Our heart directs our attention and our worship. Where our heart is there our worship follows. When we seek God with our whole heart, the Holy Spirit fills us with life. We are renewed, transformed, and purposed.
I have hidden your word in my heart
When you hide something valuable, you seek out a location that you will be able to find again when you need to. This word “hidden” is not a metaphor for putting something from our sight, but is a greater concept of taking the words we read in Scripture and burying them in the most sacred places of our heart and our memory so that we can recall the promises and truths of God when we need them most.
Growing up, I was given a weekly Bible verse to memorize. I remember how this task felt tedious as my young memory struggled to remember verses that I hardly understood. I knew that God was love and that I was supposed to obey my father and mother, so the memorization of these verses seemed excessive. 20 years later, I still remember these foundational verses that, though they were dormant during my adolescent years of rebellion, they were hidden for a greater time when my heart would fall in love with God again and would lean into these hidden treasures of truth that daily provides me with encouragement and becomes a beautiful gift I can offer to those who find themselves needing truth as well.
Praise be to you Lord, teach me Your decrees.
Spending time with God is authentic worship. Worship always requires sacrifice, and when we seek, we sacrifice what we want to do with our time. It requires the surrender of our best plans and actions for the greater purposes of God. The more we seek, the more like Christ we become. Worship was never meant to become an event. While our church worship services lead us into a powerful experience of the presence of God, it is our personal decision to engage in God’s presence with worship. And this service means nothing if we do not allow it to inspire our worship throughout the rest of the week. As our LeadHer Chapters talk about worship being a lifestyle this year, the concept of seeking could not be any more relevant to this change in our perspective. We can selfishly seek to fulfill our to-do list or find the answers we want to hear, but that will never be worship. When we seek God because we long to experience more of Him, God receives our heart’s desire as our worship.
Who has your whole heart: Your job, your dreams, or your Creator? Who do you seek after: A relationship, a promotion, or a relationship with your Daddy God?
Tune your whole heart to the one who loves you more than anyone else in this world. Seek Him. Hide the promises of His Word in your heart. And turn your heart to praise Him who gives your life a purpose.