3 Ways to Seek the Lord

Hello Friends and Happy New Year!

I love the new year, don’t you? It always feels like a fresh start, like the sun is rising on and washing over us with newness, excitement, and opportunity. I take some time each year to choose a word + verse for the year, and this year I chose seek, from 27:8. (To learn more about word of the year and why I chose seek, check out last week’s podcast episode!). In 2023, I want to truly seek the Lord more. I want to seek Him when I’m struggling, when I’m succeeding, when I don’t know what to do. I want Him to be the first place I go in every circumstance. I want to seek His will and plan for my life and not my own. Is this your heart too? If not, we should all come to this desire in some capacity. The Bible commands us to seek the Lord first (Matthew 6:33), and when we do everything else follows. Let your pray be this week to turn your heart to the Lord and grow a desire to seek Him in your life.

How can we seek the Lord practically? I’m a practical gal. Don’t beat around the bush and give me feelings and abstract ideas, how can we actually, actively, seek the Lord in our daily life? Here are a few ways I’m working on seeking the Lord, and I’d love for you to join me.

Lay Your Plans Before the Lord

Are you planning a big road trip this year? Are you considering taking a different job? Are you going to finish your degree? Buy a new car? Declutter your entire home? Whatever your plans are in 2023, and even just for the day, lay them before the Lord. Yes, even if it is just the plan to go to story time at the library or meet your best friend at the gym for a workout. Do you have the desire for a larger home? A larger family? A savings account goal? Lay it before the Lord.

How can you lay your plans, daily, weekly, or yearly, before the Lord? I think the first step in this is to start your day with prayer. Ask the Lord, “Is this what you want?” When you sit at your table and plan your calendar for the month, ask the Lord to bless each activity. Pray over each to-do list. Ask Him to help you accomplish what needs to be done and let go of what doesn’t (preaching to the choir, here). Proverbs 16:9 tells us that men make many plans, but it is the Lord Who guides us through life.

Step one in seeking the Lord everyday: give Him your plans, to bless or to change.

Set Aside Time to be With the Lord

If I have learned anything in the past 2 years, it is how crucial and vital it is to prioritize time with the Lord in His word. If you aren’t in your Bible daily, seeking knowledge of the character and heart of God, you aren’t seeking Him. The Bible is our lifeline to the Father. The Bible contains every bit of information we ought to know about our Lord, and if we are going to seek Him, we must be in His word. There are no excuses. I used to be more gentle with this, but the older I get and the more my life changes, there is no excuse for not being in God’s Word. You either want to seek Him, or you don’t. If you truly want to seek the Lord, you will make the time. You will wake up earlier, or go to bed earlier. You will turn off your phone and focus. You will let go of your social calendar a bit. There is time. Check your screen time on your phone, how many hours are you spending on social media? Take one of those hours and read your Bible instead. It will greatly affect your life. The more you seek the Lord, the more you seek the Lord.

Remove Distractions

This has been my life lesson for the past year and some change. You can only seek the Lord when you remove distractions! Your distractions may be different, and some distractions you simply can’t remove. However the distractions you can remove will open the opportunity up to seek the Lord. I will go into detail about my experience with social media in the February podcast, but removing social media from my life has changed my spiritual life. It’s incredible how easily the things of this world block us from seeking the Lord. The noise of the world can become so loud even without social media. We all get tripped up by it. The to do list, the hang outs, the new tv show, the headlines, the worry. These things so easily capture our time and thoughts, and we have to actively remove them. Today I’m not going to watch tv, I’m going to read and pray and listen. Listening to the Lord is part of seeking Him and it takes silence to do so. Now, as a mom of 2, silence is rare. BUT I can seek the Lord and listen to Him in the noise of my home life, but I cannot seek and listen to the Lord when I have a podcast on or when I’m reading a book.

If you truly want to seek the Lord, remove the distractions from your day, and just seek him.

I pray this post encourages you to seek the Lord wholeheartedly, intentionally, and always.