Naturally Speaking

Whatever you are looking for, you will eventually find it. If you are looking to find something wrong about a person, you will undoubtedly find it. And if you search hard enough to prove a person is good, you’ll find something, even when all the other facts prove the contrary.

If you are looking to prove your spouse’s infidelity, you will find it (whether he is actually unfaithful or not). He will take too long to answer the phone when you call or stumble or stutter when you question him.

If you believe a man is a thief, everything he does is under scrutiny and in some way confirms your suspicions. His eyes are too shifty; he always looks guilty.

If you are obsessed with being pregnant, phantom symptoms and omens appear everywhere. You’re always bloated and craving stuff. Commercials about expecting inundate the television screen. When you go to the mall, your eyes are always drawn to maternity stores and clothes.

When you want to be a good person, but inwardly believe you are not, you find all the evidence you need to support that too.

Spiritually Speaking

Jesus said, “Seek and you will find.” (Matt.7:7) Who is Jesus? According to Him, He is the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He is the light of men and living water (John 1:1-5; John 4:10).

Believers rejoice in this because they know:

1. When they are lost, Jesus is the way. You don’t have to stay lost. When you find Him, you will even find yourself.
2. If you are seeking truth–not a set of facts that can change over time–Jesus got it because He is the truth; impartial, unbiased, unchanging truth. He got the real deal, the true narrative–not just to His story but to yours.
3. If you are tired of living an unfruitful life, tired of being the walking dead and seek life, you will find it.
4. As living water, He will quench the thirst regular water (or any other drink) can’t touch. So, you can stop looking in all the wrong places for fulfillment, and expecting all the wrong things to fill your void.
5. Jesus will enlighten your mind, change your life, and expose what lurks in the cover of darkness, including all intentions, motives, and schemes because He is the light of men.

Advice for the Seekers

Be careful what you look for.  You may be stuck with whatever you find.

Stop looking and expecting God, people, or circumstances to confirm your fears or suspicions and validate your doubts. If God says you are blessed, stop expecting curses. Don’t seek to manipulate facts or truth to bend to your will, judgments or expectations.

Buy the truth and sell it not (Prov23:23). If you really want truth, you must put your heart in the search (like everything else you truly seek), no half-stepping. When you find it, hold on to it with everything you got. Truth is treasure. But if you believe it to be less than that, thieves will rob you or trick you into forfeiting it. Then you will torment yourself searching for something you already had but rejected.

Search yourself and discover what it is you’re really looking for. Know your heart’s desire, so you won’t be distracted by pettiness and counterfeits. Then you’ll recognize it when you see it.

If you’re looking for trouble, you’ll find chaos.

If you seek meaning, you’ll ultimately find your purpose.

If you’re looking for nothing, nothing is what you’ll find. And misery is all you’ll have.

–D.L. Lunsford