What are you seeking? The First and Great Commandment

What are you seeking?

The great and first commandment

Matthew 22.37, 38

And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.”

John 1.38

Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?”

How do you seek the Lord?

One of the sure ways of knowing that we love God is by the amount of time and effort we invest seeking Him. After all, He has commanded us to seek Him, and He suggests there’s some kind of urgency about this, since He will not always be available to be found (Is. 55.6). The righteous men of old had seeking the Lord as their top priority, first thing in the morning (Ps. 63.1). When you love someone, you want to be with Him, to spend time together enjoying one another’s company. We’re all very busy, with plenty to do each day, and the things to which we give our best time and energy will surely be the things we regard most highly or value most. Is there any space for God in there in your life? I’m not suggesting that if you just force yourself to spend an hour with the Lord first thing in the morning that will prove that you love Him. Indeed, I’m saying quite the reverse: If you truly love the Lord, not only will you seek out time with Him first thing in the day, but you won’t let yourself drift very far from Him throughout the day, and you’ll try to snatch every available moment you can to relax in His presence. If you love the Lord, you will seek Him.

In what ways would you say that you seek the Lord? Are you finding Him by those ways? As much as you could?

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“In the Gates” is a devotional series on the Law of God by Rev. T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is editor of the Worldview Church. He serves as dean of the Centurions Program of the Wilberforce Forum and principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He is the author or editor of twenty books, and has contributed chapters to four others. His essays, reviews, articles, papers, and poetry have appeared in dozens of national and international journals, and on a wide range of websites. His most recent books are The Ailbe Psalter and The Ground for Christian Ethics (Waxed Tablet).

Scripture quotations in this article are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, (c) copyright 2001,2007 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Editor’s note: The use of a translation other than the Authorised Version in an article does not constitute an endorsement in whole or in part by The Christian Observer.