Read the transcript from today's video devotional.
I find it amazing how a verse that I learned at the age of 12 would carry me through some of my darkest seasons in my 30s. Fast forward—now I'm 34 years old, and I keep going to this verse that I'm about to read. Listen to Isaiah chapter 55, verse 6: "Seek the Lord while you can find Him. Call on Him now while He is near."
What's interesting is I knew this verse because I learned it at the age of 12. This was actually my first verse that I learned. I knew it, but I didn't really know it. What does that mean? It takes time to really get God's word in our hearts. There are verses that I've studied for ten years, and it takes a while for the verses to go from my head to my heart. This is one of them.
The Urgency of Today
The prophet Isaiah is telling the Israelites, "Hey, turn to the Lord now." Notice the urgency. "Seek the Lord while you can find Him." He's saying, today is the day to seek the Lord.
I love sharing my faith, especially on the basketball court, and when I talk to a lot of my buddies and I tell them to come to the Lord- I share the gospel- one of the common responses I get is, "You know, let me kind of do my own thing. Let me kind of party a little bit and let me experience true freedom. I want to live a life of freedom, and then I'll give my life to the Lord." Doing whatever you want to do is actually not freedom. It's bondage.
The prophet is encouraging us to turn to the Lord now, because there's coming a day where we actually won't be able to turn to the Lord and repent of our sin. He's saying, the day of salvation is today. Yet the enemy wants us to believe the lie that, "Yeah, there's time. There's time for you to come to the Lord." We never know how much time we have left. When the prophet Isaiah tells us to "seek the Lord while you can find Him, call on Him while He is near," he's saying, today's the day.
What We Get When We Seek the Lord
Why is he saying to seek the Lord? What do we get when we seek the Lord? Here's what we get: We get God. When we get God, we have more than what we need. He's our strength. He's our wisdom. He's our hope. We don't seek God to get His stuff. We seek the Lord because we get Him. When we get Him, we know that we're not going to lack anything.
For many of us listening, maybe you don't know the Lord. I want to encourage you to give your life to the Lord today. You need God more than you think you do.
Keep Praying for Others
For those of us that are praying for family members or friends or neighbors to come to the Lord, I want to encourage you: keep praying because God is always working behind the scenes. We just never know what God is doing. I had to repent because I wrote off a buddy of mine. I thought, "Man, as I look at his life, I don't think God's going to use him, or I don't even think God's going to save him." But God grabbed ahold of his life, and God is using him.
I share that example just to tell us, don't write people off. You'd be amazed at who God uses. Look at Apostle Paul. He was a killer. He had a goal to kill Christians. Then he turned out to be the defender of the faith and wrote a third of the New Testament.
I share that to encourage you. Keep praying because God is always moving behind the scenes. "Seek the Lord while you can find Him and call on Him while He is near."
