Challenge yourself to recite Matthew 7:7-12 by memory as best you can.

Search calls us to discover God and His goodness in a broken world. As we turn to God in surrender, He will begin to shape our character and conduct through His Spirit, who is already at work in us. Search brings us back to God’s Word as His guide. Search requires us to study the Scriptures, seeking God first.

If we turn the yearning of thirst into a longing to seek God, we will begin to see how He and His ways are good. God’s Word helps us learn God’s goodness and how we can pursue Him in faithfulness. Seeking to know God, to know and become like Jesus, will not happen void of the Bible being a part of our life.

The Gospel of John teaches us that Jesus’ character displays the qualities for which we learn God’s character. In Colossians, we learn that the incarnation of Jesus makes the invisible God visible by showing us what He is like and how He behaves.

Colossians 1:15: He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.

Colossians 1:19: For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell.

The human being Jesus is at the same time the Son of God who came into our world to first save us from sin and then lead us, by the power of His Spirit at work in us, day by day in this life and eventually for eternity.

Romans 6:22: But now that you have been set free from sin and have become slaves of God, the fruit you get leads to sanctification and its end, eternal life.

Search brings us back to God’s Word, helping us learn who God is, who Jesus is, and who the Holy Spirit is. Search guides us to set our minds on God first through His Word, to discover Him, His ways and how He is at work in us to change us from the inside out.

As you seek God to discover where you are on your journey, start with prayer and God’s Word. They are essential components in search. Maybe today you realize your next step is to reengage with God in the Scriptures.

Hebrews 4:12: For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

John 8:31-32: So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, ‘If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Over and over again, God will guide us as He puts us on a path to a new area of growth and freedom in Him. We will go through this process repeatedly in our relationship of knowing Him and becoming like Him. Each time the process begins with thirst and then moves to search. Over the next few weeks, we will see how the process continues to a place of know, experience, depth, and community in God.

For today, thank God that from the beginning, He had a plan for us in Jesus. Thank Him for His Word and how in it we see history moving throughout the Old Testament, pointing to Jesus. Thank Him for the New Testament which tells of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection and His promised return. Thank Him for His great love and for His Holy Spirit, who resides in us and brings us new life. Thank God for the hope we have in Him now and for eternity because of who Jesus is. Thank God for His love and His grace.

Pray Romans 15:4 "For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope."