In Os Guinness’ book named, The Call he says, “The term seeker is in vogue today. This trend is unfortunate because its use in a shallow way obscured its real importance. Too often seekers is used to describe the spiritual unattached of the Western world. Such seekers are rarely looking for anything in particular. Often they are drifters, not seekers, little different from the “hoppers and shoppers” who surf the media and cruise the malls of the postmodern world. Uncommitted, restless, and ever-open…
When it comes to us, is his description of a seeker does it mirror our lives? If we are Christians this doesn’t mean we now stop seeking, but how are we living out a life of a disciple? Are we becoming a learner, and are we still seeking? Or are we content with the lazy chair waiting for God to do the work for us. Do we look back at our lives through the years and wonder why we still have no change in our walk with Christ? Do we see little or no change and wonder why? If that is the case with your life, then how are you seeking, or are you seeking at all?
Os Guinness goes on to say, “True seekers are different. On meeting them you feel their purpose, their energy, their integrity, their idealism, and their desire to close in on an answer. Something in life has awakened questions, has made them aware of a sense of need, has forced them to consider where they are in life. They have become seekers because something has spurred their quest for meaning, and they have to find an answer. True seekers are looking for something. They are people for whom life, or a part of life, has suddenly become a point of wonder, a question, a problem, or a crisis. This happens so intensely that they are stirred to look for an answer beyond present answers and to clarify their position in life. However the need arises, and whatever it calls for, the sense of need consumes the searchers and launches them on a quest.”
Are we seeking, or are we sitting back? A disciple is called to follow so close to Christ, to become like Him, and to grow into His likeliness. We are to be like the seekers that Os Guinness spoke about. The interesting word is used, the word question, the first part of the word is quest. Are you on a quest, are you seeking and searching the Word of God in you quest to be more like Him? The other word that describes a disciple is the word committed. Are you committed, to your church, to the people in your life, to your family, to your position in life? Think about how the seeker is committed, he or she is committed to their church. They look to serve and not be served; they look to help out in the church and in other areas when it comes to the work of Christ. On the other hand, there are those who call themselves seekers, but they seek to be served by others, they seek to complain about what they church isn’t doing, they seek to have the ears of others, but have no hands for helping. Jesus said in Matthew 7:7, /"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Jesus didn’t say sit and the door will be open to you, but seek. Seek the kingdom of God first, seek His face, and surrender to His plan. But to do this calls for real commitment, not a commitment to our level of comfort, or to our level of laziness. We are called to be Disciples of Christ and be committed to Him in all things and in all times.
Commitment is not laziness but one of ambition. The ambitious person doesn’t wait for someone to do the work for them, matter of fact they don’t want someone to do it but they long to fulfill their ambition. Unfortunately in our world spiritual ambition is seen as a dirty word. But how many of us will spend countless hours learning something if there is a financial benefit? How many hours do we spend sitting watching television, or waiting in line for a movie? How ambitious are we for the things of this world, while at the same time we see spiritual ambition as something negative. C J Mahaney says this about ambition in the foreword of Dave Harvey’s book, Rescuing Ambition. “It’s about ambition for the glory of Another. It’s about seeing ambition rescued and sanctified for the advance of the gospel and the service of your local church, your family, your office, your school. It’s about igniting ambition for the glory of God. Every one of us is ambitious for something or someone. (Yep, that includes you.) But too few of us have thought biblically about ambition. We don’t like to talk about it. We assume that if we avoid the topic, we’ll avoid temptation. We need someone to talk with, someone to teach us, about our aspirations.”
At times I have said I wish I had more motivation, a positive one, to have discipline, rather than be disciplined. Those two words didn’t fit and I didn't know what it was until I started reading my bible study on Spiritual Discipleship. The chapter was called Disciple's Ambition, which was the word I needed, I need a godly ambition, instead of being more disciplined, or motivated. Being disciplined is good and so is motivation, but I think ambition moves us when motivation and discipline fall away. Ambition means the love of honor. "Therefore we also have as our ambition, whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him." 2 Corinthians 5:9 (NASB) "Worldly ambition can have a variety of ingredients, but it usually follows three main lines: popularity, fame, the desire to build a reputation; power, the desire to wield authority over one's fellows; wealth, the desire to amass a fortune, with the power that brings. The fatal flaw with such ambitions is that they all focus on self." (J. Oswald Sanders)
Pleasing God, this being a worthy ambition, we need to ask what is our ambition in our sphere of influence? Where can we use our influence? Not where we think we should be, but where God has placed us. When we think about where we should be, we begin to be discouraged, but God has put us in a place of influence, if God wanted us somewhere else, He would put us there. We need to put away negative ideas about our life situations which squelch a godly ambition, but look in our lives for those we can influence and serve. (Example: parents, children, friends, co-workers etc...) Don't become discouraged by circumstances but look to honor God in the place we can honor Him. In the smallest things in life we need to honor Him. Honor Him in how we treat each other, honor Him in how we use our time, and honor Him in how and what we do when no one else is around. And finally, honor Him in our thoughts and action even when there is nothing to do. We don't honor God by feeling guilty, or beating ourselves up about the past, or what we failed to do today, or yesterday. We honor Him by looking forward, and not behind, how can we listen to God today to honor Him? God may not open a door until we honor Him in our emptiness of life.
The question boils down to this, are you a seeker of the things of God, or just sitters? Proverbs 2:1-5 has some good if you’ “My son, if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, turning your ear to wisdom and applying your heart to understanding, and if you call out for insight and cry aloud for understanding, and if you look for it as for silver and search for it as for hidden treasure, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. When I look at the verse I don’t see God telling us to sit back, but to be ambitious for Him, to seek Him like silver, like hidden treasure. This brings us to a decision, how or will you seek God today, how will you bring your ambition into becoming a godly one? Or will you stay where you are, looking for something more, but not really know what that is. Don’t get me wrong, it is not about work, or doing more, for some it maybe the opposite. Some may need to slow down, sit still and listen for God’s voice, your ambition and seeking may seem like sitting, but like the sitting of Martha, who listen to the Lord. For others it may be looking at ambition in our lives; an ambition which looks to serve God and grow closer to His people, to serve Him with our feet and hands. To supplement your faith as spoken of in 2: Peter 1:5-9, “For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins” How will you today look at being a seeker, an ambitious Disciple of Christ?
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