Seek The Lord

Lately I have been trying to get into God’s word and grow in wisdom. I’m twenty-eight years old, and in a lot of areas of my life, I still need to grow up. I need the Spirit’s help through the study of the word and prayer.

A couple weeks ago, I was reading in Zephaniah, looking for Biblical wisdom.

This verse jumped off the page:

Seek the Lord, all you humble of the land, who do his just commands; seek righteousness; seek humility; perhaps you may be hidden on the day of the anger of the Lord. – Zephaniah 2:3

What do I seek?

When I look at the year or month or week ahead of me, what is it that I’m pursuing with my time and energy?

Sometimes I look at the week ahead and simply think about the responsibilities I have. I’m striving to lead my family as a husband and father. That takes intentionality. I’ve got seminary assignments. I’ve got work assignments. I am now an umpire for the local Boys & Girls Club softball league. I’ve got students that I’m meeting with for discipleship. I’ve got upcoming D-Now speaking engagements.

I’m seeking a lot of earthly things.

Many of those things are good things.

Obviously being a God-honoring spouse and father is important.

Doing my school work and work work for the glory of God is important.

But what is it that I’m chasing?

Without intentionality, a week can go by with no real growth in my walk with God.

To avoid this, I need to apply that verse from Zephaniah to my life.

Seek the Lord.

How can I commune with God this week? That’s the most important question, the most important part of my schedule.

I occasionally struggle with staying asleep. For instance, I’ve been up since 2:30 AM, and I’m writing this post at 5:15 AM. I would love to be sleeping right now. Especially with a busy day of preaching and hosting students for dinner ahead of me. But here I am.

And you know what?

It’s been beautiful. Sure, I watched a couple YouTube videos. But for the most part I’ve been reading some and praying some and journaling a whole lot. I feel God’s presence close, intimately close.

I wrote in one of my journals that I would take this feeling of intimacy with God over sleep every time.

I wish I could say this was a daily reality. It’s not.

Again, this verse is kicking my butt.

I need to seek the Lord, seek righteousness, seek humility.

How can I become more righteous, more like Christ, this week?

How can I grow in humility (something that is central to my identity as a follower of Jesus, something I don’t have to work to have but rather seek to implement: see Philippians 2:5) this week?

Zephaniah tells me.

By doing just commands.

God’s commands that is.

If I seek to live in step with the commands of God in Scripture, I will over time, through the work of the Spirit, become more like Him and grow in humility and righteous living.

Humble, righteous men and women change communities because humble, righteous men and women give God all of the glory instead of seeking to hoard it for themselves.

Oh goodness I’ve got a long laundry list of times where I sought to get a little bit of God’s glory for myself.

It never pans out.

Brother or sister in Christ, seek the Lord this week.

He will be found!

May our communities be overflowing with men and women who seek the Lord and imitate His humility and righteousness to a watching world.

In His Name,

Nate Roach

Modern Milcoms

Jesus Christ is either Lord of all my life or He is not Lord at all in my life.

Jesus either dictates every aspect of my life here on earth, or He doesn’t. In regards to lordship, there is no middle ground. I can’t give God my mornings in the Word and then refuse to seek His counsel in regards to finances, health, work, and play. I can’t claim that my life is a blank check on which God can call me to sacrifice in whatever way He sees fit and then respond with complaining and grumbling when what He’s calling me to doesn’t fit with my preconceived notions and plans.

Jesus Christ is either Lord of all my life or He is not Lord at all in my life.

The last couple days I’ve been super fascinated with the book of Zephaniah. This book paints a picture of God’s majesty and power that does truly produce a fear of God in me. God proclaims His ability to destroy everything on earth, but instead of enacting His just wrath, He extends mercy to those who humbly seek Him. As I was simply studying some of the details surrounding this short book, a passage in the first chapter struck me.

“I will stretch out my hand against Judah and against all the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and I will cut off from this place the remnant of Baal and the name of the idolatrous priests along with the priests, those who bow down on the roofs to the host of the heavens, those who bow down and swear to the Lord and yet swear by Milcom, those who have turned back from following the Lord, who do not seek the Lord or inquire of him.” – Zephaniah 1:4-6

Wow. God’s anger was burning against His people. His people were deserving of wrath. What they were doing was submitting to the Lord by bowing down to Him. Yet they didn’t just bow down to Him and Him alone. Instead they chose to worship and bow down to the stars and to Milcom.

In the time of Zephaniah’s prophecy, Milcom was the national god of the Ammonites. This god was often worshiped via the practice of infant sacrifices. It was a deplorable practice and it was apparently being at least permitted by these people of God who chose to bow down to not just the Lord alone but also to the deities of the surrounding nations. It was as if God’s people were hedging their bets. It was as if God’s people were making sure that if God truly wasn’t in complete control then at least they will have appeased these other ‘gods’ that might in fact be real.

Reading this elicits in me a quick reaction of judgment. I look at the inhabitants of Jerusalem at the time of Zephaniah’s writing and think how in the world can you guys be so stupid. God has spoken to you countless times, proven His miraculous power left and right, and yet you all struggle with making Him Lord over all in your lives.

Then I take a real hard look in the mirror.

There are modern-day idols all around us.

There are modern-day Milcoms. There are cultural idols that I can worship too. I’ve heard countless people say that usually what you’re thinking about at the very start of the day and the very end of the day is what you worship. Ouch. There are so many things that I worship besides just the Lord. To use the terminology of the passage here in Zephaniah, I ‘bow down’ to countless cultural idols.

I bow down to the need to be right in arguments. I bow down to the need to have complete comfort. I bow down to my finances as the dictators of how I give and how I live. I bow down to the obsession of having a relationship that is admired by others. I bow down to loving my neighbor without sharing with them the offensive truths of the gospel. I bow down to my wants. I bow down to wanting to make a name for myself that people will remember. I bow down to social media. I bow down to how social media says that I should live. I bow down to family. I bow down to friends. I bow down to the status quo.

The list could go on and on. We struggle to truly submit to Jesus’ lordship over our lives. Instead we allow countless other things to dictate how we live.

Jesus Christ is either Lord of all my life or He is not Lord at all in my life.

I pray that this blog post doesn’t drive anyone into feelings of condemnation. I pray instead that this blog post drives all of us into a convicting understanding of how we can better submit to Jesus as Lord in all aspects of our lives.

There is hope. Gospel hope. Hope in Christ.

Zephaniah chapter three shows us the hope.

On that day you shall not be put to shame because of the deeds by which you have rebelled against me; for then I will remove from your midst your proudly exultant ones, and you shall no longer be haughty in my holy mountain. But I will leave in your midst a people humble and lowly. They shall seek refuge in the name of the Lord. – Zephaniah 3:11-12

The book of Zephaniah is filled with the promise that if we humble ourselves before God, He will show mercy.

Jesus Christ paid the penalty for all of our sins, even the sin of not submitting to Jesus as Lord. So if you’re struggling with submitting all of your life to God, know that God is waiting with open arms to receive you and cleanse you of your pride (the worship of idols is ultimately a pride issue because we create gods that submit to us).

In the coming year, allow Jesus to be the Lord of all in your life.

He is worthy of your worship.

In His Name,

Nate Roach

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