You Must Be Looking to Find

Since I love all things “beach”, that means I love the water, sand, sunrises and sunsets, birds and fish! Dolphins are a favorite. But, if I am not intently looking for them I can easily miss their trek across the gulf in front of me. 

Some days I just glance once in a while, looking up from what I’m reading, and spot a fin. As I keep my eyes on the water I see more as they surface for air. On days I really spend time staring at the water, I tend to see quite a few more.

One morning on the last beach trip, I began thinking how few I’d seen. I actually told the Lord, I’d really like to see them again before we leave. Truly, not a couple of minutes later, I spotted one, then another and another. I would have totally missed them if I had my eyes on a book and not taken the time to LOOK!

This same principle holds true regarding our relationship to Jesus. Do you want to hear from Him? Do you want to know Him? We do experience those sweet serendipities from the Lord, but if we truly want to develop spiritual disciplines and continually draw closer to Jesus, we must be intentional, alert, LOOKING. 

What do you need to do to take the next step in your discipleship journey? Start a Bible reading plan? Carve out intentional time to spend with Jesus and His Word? Join a life group for exhortation, encouragement, accountability and fellowship? 

I read that dolphins help each other when one is sick and not able to surface for air. A healthy dolphin will swim under them and hoist them up to breathe. We need the body of Christ around us to help us breathe when we cannot. We need them to pray when pain keeps us from being able to pray. A life group is a great place to find people to hoist you up, and breathe and pray for you when you cannot.

Paul encourages us to grow up.

And I pray this: that your love will keep on growing in knowledge and every kind of discernment, so that you may approve the things that are superior and may be pure and blameless in the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God. Philippians 1:9

Don’t wait. Take that next step. A new year is coming and that’s always a great time to decide to move forward and do something different. 

Lord, thank you that you desire a relationship with us. Thank you that you speak to us and teach us. You grow us up in Truth. Speak to each of us. Show us what we need to know about who you are and who you want us to be. Help us never stop looking for the next step of growth.

Banner photo by Peter Fogden on Unsplash