Seeking God with Your Heart

In two previous posts I expressed my desire to experience the presence of God and my understanding of how this might come about. This post continues the discussion.

Jeremiah 29:12-13 offers this promise: “Then when you call upon me and come and pray to me, I will hear you. When you search for me, you will find me; if you seek me with all your heart.”

These words from Jeremiah are very encouraging to me in my quest to know God and experience God personally. They tell me God hears my prayer and I can find God. This will come as I seek God with all my heart. The biblical understanding of heart is much bigger and deeper that our usual usage today. It describes the core of our being and the center of our will and action, as well as the source of our love, our deepest desire and commitment.

Loving God is central to the religion of Israel as seen in Deuteronomy 6:5-7, the Shema, the basic confession of faith: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might. Keep these words that I am commanding you today in your heart.”

When I re-read these words recently, I was struck by a question: Do I really love God? I think about God. I pray to God, I worship God. But do I love God? Do I devote my whole being—heart, soul, and strength to God? Do I desire to be close to God? Do I feel affection for God? Do I long for the presence of God? Do I value God above all else? And I had to answer, Not always, maybe not very often.

This led me to a decision. I will meditate on loving God. I will sit quietly in God’s presence and allow my feelings as well as my thoughts to reach out to God. I will meditate on God’s love for me. 1 John 4:10 reminds us that love starts with God’s love for us: “In this is love, not that we loved God but that he loved us.”

I am convinced that we will experience God when we devote ourselves to loving God with all our heart. And, as I will discuss in the next post, loving God also involves loving our neighbor, and acting out that love in ways that bring us into contact with God.