Just Be 30-Day Challenge
Just BE Serious – Day 27
Webster says ‘Serious’ means requiring thought, concentration or application or of grave or somber disposition, character or manner; weighty or important; being in earnest; sincere; of great crucial importance
Synonyms: important, urgent, arduous, meaningful, significant, of consequence, fateful; deliberate, sincere, sober, honest, thoughtful, genuine
GOD says in Jeremiah 29:11-14, ‘This is God’s Word on the subject, “As soon as Babylon’s seventy years are up and not a day before, I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home. I know what I am doing. I have it all planned out – plans to take care of you and not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for. When you call on me, when you come and pray to me, I will listen. When you come looking for me, you will find me. Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else, I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed.” God’s Decree. “I’ll turn things around for you. I’ll bring you back from all the countries into which I drove you”—God’s Decree—“bring you home to the place from which I sent you off into exile. You can count on it [because you can count on me]” (MSG).’
I imagine many of you like me have a pretty plaque or pillow embroidered with the above verse, perhaps in a different biblical version. The New International Version says, ‘”For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”’ It also goes on to add, ‘”Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity…”’ I think all of us stop after V.11 though because it reads well. It is a surefire and significant promise of goodwill for me and it does not require anything of me in that verse.
But if we read on further, we find that there is an assignment for you and me. And it starts with an uncomfortable little word that carries a lot of obligation. Serious. And I think what the Lord is saying is we have an arrangement. He allows me to stay in my lane and He isn’t going to come into my lane unless I call Him over into it. But once I do, look out, so I best be serious about asking Him over.
I think about the God of the Universe a lot. It’s a complicated thing. But only to me; not to Him. See, He has become everything to me. Someday I hope I won’t even know where I end and He begins because He has taken over my life so completely, and because we walk so closely together, we are one and the same. But that’s obscure because He is a King and I am a lowly slave. How do I think I might ever have His presence so wrapped around me we are interchangeable? Huh?! Because Jesus put on my flesh and wore my battle wounds and washed my feet so I might become the righteousness of God? No longer a slave?! Yes, that is what He did for me! He made Himself found by me. I could seek Him at my lowest; I could seek Him at my best. And He will be found by me, and not only that, He will listen. How many people in your life listen to you? I mean, really listen? I think we have become a generation that half hears. But, daughter, He wants to hear you.
It goes deeper than that though, Princess. Let’s remember He is a King. He wants His daughter to want Him listening more than anything else. It’s like He is saying, ‘You make the time and I will be there. You will not find me vacant and unavailable and too busy. You say the word; I’m in.’
One more thing. I’m a word nerd. But I’m pretty sure it has happened to me so it makes me serious about it. I think our Heavenly Father takes us back to the place that held us captive TO set us free. You ask, why would a loving father take me back to a place where I was imprisoned…that doesn’t seem very loving or kind! But, sister, we cannot be set free from somewhere we are not enslaved at. We can only be freed where we are held captive and when the chains fall off. It is my humble opinion that my Father takes me back to the places and the circumstances where I was imprisoned so He can historically set me free. And He has. Set me free. I am seriously serious about my need for Him.
Day 27 Challenge: Sister, your Heavenly Father is actually even more serious about you. He is so serious He sent His son to the cross for your burdens. If you haven’t been serious about Him yet, today is the day! or perhaps you have a loved one who you want to seriously share Him with, so do it today!
