You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.
(Jeremiah 29:13)
As a professional artist, I find that most art buyers make art purchases for one of three reasons: to accessorize, to follow, or to engage. The first group is made of those who buy to “match their sofas.” The are more interested in home accessories than in the quality of or the story behind the art. The second group includes those who purchase what friends, designers, or magazines tell them to buy—in other words, this group follows trends and people. The third group is comprised of those who allow themselves to engage wit the art and the artist. They are interested in the title, the story, and the interpretation of the painting. Their hearts are open to receive what the painting offers in terms of inspiration and message.
The same options of accessorizing, following and engaging are available in your relations hip with the Lord. In day0to0day life, you can set aside your relationship with God so that it stays in a box, on the table, on a book shelf, or in the four walls of the church on Sunday mornings. In other words, God can become an ACCESSORY to your life.
Secondly, like those who followed trends and others’ opinions with their art purchases, you could chose to FOLLOW what your friends, family, or church doctrine tells you about God without thinking much about him. When you do that, you are simply following what others say and teach, but you aren’t initiating your own interaction with God.
A third option is to choose a relationship—to ENGAGE with Jesus, your Shepherd—so that you are open to receive His word and revelation when He speaks. Openness to receive engages Holy Spirit and invites Him to speak. He is a gentleman. For the most part, He will only enter your life as far and as intimately as you allow. He is a respecter of boundaries and will not usually cross the lines that people put in place. Those boundaries can be as basic as unbelief that God speaks today or as subtle as placing expectations of how He should speak to you.
Engage with the Lord to meet Him more intimately in His Word. Seek the Lord, search for Him with all your heart, engage with Him and He will find Him. He longs to meet with you.
Excerpt from Created For So Much More, Deborah Gall