Yo sugar daddy give it to me baby. AKA God. Oops, let me try again. Yo God, give it to me baby. Uh oh. Doesn’t sound too good, does it? Take three. Dear Father in heaven, give it to me baby. Three strikes. Am I out? Let’s go for another round. Yo baby yo baby yo – God. Father. Beloved. Heavenly father. Sweet thing. Too sugary. Artificial. Man, pull it together. Our Father in heaven, please give me everything I want. Here’s my list. It’s long, I know. But you told me to pray. Right?
Oh my God, here I go again. Another list of stuff I need from God. “There’s a difference between want and need,” my parents taught me. What can I say? I’m 45 years old now. Now I’m not wheedling stuff out of my parents. I’m going to God for the goods. The good stuff. The God stuff. Now hold up. Wait a second. Just a cotton picking minute. What’s that you say, God? You are my provider, right? Isn’t that what the Bible says? Okay, I promise not to call you my sugar daddy.
Pardon me? I’m treating you like one? Reverence? Awe? Fear of you? Oh my. Well, ahem, hmm. Lord, I know. You’re right. You gave me a message a few weeks ago that wasn’t for me alone. It was for the world. So here I go. Dear God, please help me to tell the world what you told me. In your own words. This is what you told me, word for word. Here goes. And Lord, before I begin, please forgive me for all these years of falling so short in seeking you for you.
Here it is. The message.
“I am not only a provider. I am so much more than this. Yet this is so often how the world sees me. So they seek from me provision. And they miss me. They seek what I give. And then they resist what I provide because they realize it is not enough. They will never be content because what they longed for is physical. This will never be adequate. Tell my people it is time to seek me. When they seek me, they will find what fills them. They have sought provision. It is time for them to seek me.”
Oh my God. What a message. What a message I could have kept to myself. I could have kept it in my notebook, my secret place, the secret place where I go with God to listen to Him, to talk to Him, to open my heart to Him but most importantly to hear from Him. And He told me this. He gave me these words. But they were not just for me. They were also for you. And for others. And for anyone who is supposed to hear them. But is hearing enough? Or is it time to do? Is it time to stop seeking the Lord for His provision alone, and instead to seek Him for who He is? I have heard this before. But I have not heard it like I did this time. Not in my core the way I did this time around. I have been told to “seek the giver, not the gifts.” “Seek the provider, not the provision.” Yeah, stuff like that. Words. Messages. Cool ones. Interesting words. But it never struck me the way it did this time. Why? Why did I get it this time?
I don’t know. Not really. I only know this. I have spent most of my years walking with the Lord with a laundry list of stuff I wanted from Him. Physical stuff, yes. Justifiable stuff? Yeah. In my mind anyway. Oh, a whole bunch of stuff. Not just physical. Other stuff too. Please help this person. Heal that one. Fix this. And please do this. Please and thank you, too. Polite requests. Demanding sometimes. Sickeningly demanding. Too often. Not with humility. Commanding Him. How awful. Yes, it’s true. I’ve done that too. Prosperity teaching. False teaching. I fell under it at times. Really, that’s neither here nor there right now. What is right here, right now, is a message I cannot avoid hearing. And one I can no longer avoid doing.
God is my provider, yes. It’s true. According to the Bible, it is true. Indeed. But to seek His provision above Him, instead of Him, is not only a long-time habit of mine. It’s sad. It’s tragic, actually. Why? Because the Lord is the Lord of the universe. He’s the love of my life. And I’ve turned to Him more for what He can provide for me so I can check stuff on my laundry list than I’ve sought Him for who He is – and more than I’ve sought Him for what He’d like to give me above all else – His love, His forgiveness, His compassion, His mercy, and so very much more. Most of all, He wants to give me Himself. He wants to give me intimacy with Him, relationship with Him, one-on-one time with Him. He wants to walk with me, to talk to me, to listen to me, to share with me, to teach me, to grow me, to transform me, to pour into me, to pour through me. He wants me to want Him.
Him? To want Him? To want God? To want God more than what He can – and does – provide for me? Absolutely.
But this message is not for me alone. It is also for you.
Are you seeking God’s stuff, or are you seeking Him? Is He your sugar daddy, or is He your Father in heaven? Is He your provider alone, or is He Lord of the universe and not just a Giver of the stuff you need? Are you seeking the Lord while He may be found? Do you realize if you seek Him first, He will provide what you need? Are you taking the time to seek the Lord? Or are you only seeking what you want, and what you believe that you need? If this message is for you, please consider this. It is not too late to start seeking Him. In fact, why not start now?
Isa 55:6 “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near…”
Mat 6:33 “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.”
1 Comment
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