With All Your Heart!

I've been thinking lately about Jeremiah 29:13. Through the prophet Jeremiah, God is speaking to the Israelites while they are in captivity in Babylon.  He tells them "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart".

The thing that is catching my attention at this particular time is the phrase "with all your heart". God said to Israel that they could find Him, but they had to be serious about it. A casual, half-hearted attempt to connect with God wouldn't be good enough.

Wow! Could that explain why I so often feel out of touch with God, like He is nowhere to be found? Is it because I haven't been really serious about it?

I was curious to see if the Bible ever used the expression "with all your heart" in other places.  I was amazed at what I found. I'm going to give you just a sample of the 24 places where that phrase is used in the NIV.

    Deuteronomy 4:29 "You will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul"

    Deuteronomy 6:5 "love the Lord you God with all your heart"

    Deuteronomy 10:12 "serve the Lord your God with all your heart"

    Joshua 22:5 "hold fast to him and serve him with all your heart"

    1 Samuel 12: 24 "fear the Lord and serve him faithfully with all your heart"

    Proverbs 3:5 "trust in the Lord with all your heart"

    Joel 2:12 "return to me with all your heart"

    Zephaniah 3:14 "be glad and rejoice with all your heart"

    Matthew 22:37 "love the Lord your God with all your heart"

    Colossians 3:23 "whatever you do, work at it with all your heart"

Seek Him.  Love Him.  Serve Him.  Hold fast to Him.  Trust Him.  Return to Him. Rejoice in Him. All these things and more we are to do with all of our hearts!

Are you getting the impression that God wants us to be really serious about our relationship with Him? Jesus echoed this principle in Revelation 3 when he encouraged the believers in Laodicea to not be lukewarm about their Christianity.

God is so clear about this in the Bible that there isn't really much further to say.  We are to put our whole heart and soul into knowing and serving Him.  Period.

The only comment  I can think to make is really a question.  Why don't we do it?  

People camp out for days to get tickets to see their favourite band.  Others wait in lineups around the block to get the latest IPhone or video game, when they could simply wait a few days and avoid the lines. Other spend thousands of dollars to get up close and personal (sort of) to NFL stars at the Super Bowl. There is no limit it seems to what people will do or pay to get within viewing distance of some celebrity or athlete who is, after all, just another person.

Now consider this. The almighty God of the universe wants us to have a relationship with Him, and it's within our grasp. We just need to get serious about it. So why do we treat Him so casually? I'm not sure I really understand the answer.  If you have some insights you would like to share I'd be happy to hear from you in the comments section below.