Influencers Weekly Devotional 8/30/2013

If You Will Seek It, IT Will Come

by

Rocky Fleming

"My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints." Proverbs 2:1-8 (ESV)

    Because of the title I have given to this devotional, I wonder how many of you think I am about to give you a modern day Bible interpretation of the movie Field of Dreams?  You remember the words spoken to the farmer, Ray Kinsella, who started the process when a voice was whispered, "If you will build it he will come"?  What a great movie we watched as a mystical connection with baseball, faith, reconciliation, healing, restoration and the building of a baseball field in a rural farmland pulled it all together.  There were a lot of things woven into the fabric of that movie.  Good things, and it was a good movie because of it.  It made us all want to have something mystical like that happen to us so we can get some of the junk out of our lives like some of those characters in the movie.  I think that we all have junk, and we all need the wisdom to help us sort it out, learn from it, and discard it.  That's what happened to Ray Kinsella and his partner, Terrance Mann, who also had his own issues, like Ray, and also needed help in getting them resolved.  Come to think of it, all the people in that movie had issues that needed be resolved, even the baseball players of the past like Shoeless Joe Jackson and Ray's father, not to mention the one game player named Archibald "Moonlight" Graham.  Ray got the message that if he would build the field, someone would come.  He didn't know at the time that he had some serious father wounds, and misunderstandings about him that needed to be healed.  He only knew that someone would come if he were obedient to the voice.  There were enough people that needed help that would come to that field.  He thought it was about those people, similar to our thoughts that it's always about the other guy's needs, and not our own.  But, when it came down to it in the end, it was always about Ray.  The "he" the voice was speaking of was Ray's father.  It was Ray's father, and Ray's need to be reconciled to him was the issue, and the other people were supporting cast in the drama about Ray.  Ray thought it was the other way around and that he was simply playing a part in supporting their needs.   Have you ever felt like Ray Kinsella, that it is always the other guy who gets blessed and things unfold to help that person and not you?  Do you see yourself only as a supporting cast for someone else as the drama of life unfolds to help another person, while your needs are being neglected?  Are you like Ray Kinsella who is a good man, always considering other people's needs most of the time, serving them, helping them, while feeling neglected and not having the deep issues in your life considered?  Think hard on my question.  Are you like Ray?  If so, maybe it is time to change that and let's make the movie about you?  Maybe it is time to give some intensive care to your own needs, your hurts, and your emptiness?  If this is true in your life and you are really serious about this challenge to do something about it, then before you join any self-help programs or other strategies to fix what ails you, consider that you need to seek wisdom from your Creator to know what to do first.  Consider that most manufacturers provide services that support their product's capabilities.  It is the same with God, our Creator, and you and me.  He created us.  He knows how we tick inside and out.  He also provides support services to help us when we run down, break, are damaged, or neglected.  In fact, there is not one thing that can happen to us or in us that our Creator doesn't have a solution for, unless we are not willing to seek His wisdom on how to fix it.  If we are not willing to seek His help when we've been clearly invited to take it, then I'm not sure even God does much with prideful disobedience.  Maybe that is the only condition that voids all warranties to us ... prideful disobedience?   In the passage above we see a clear and unmistakable offer to ask of God for the wisdom we need for anything we face and we will receive it.  The reason this is on my mind as write this is because that was the state of mind I had last Saturday when I went to a private riverbank in the Ozarks forest to be alone with God and to seek His wisdom.  I was deeply troubled about something and I needed His help. I needed His wisdom to know what to do ... what my next step should be.  Now, I'm not going into the details of what I was troubled about and the answer I received.  That is not the point, for our troubles and need for wisdom varies between people and even different needs at different times in our life.  The point is not what drove me to seek God's wisdom or the wisdom He gave me.  The point is, I was invited to come to Him and seek His wisdom, I did, and He was true to His word.  He gave me the wisdom I sought.  When I walked away several hours later from that time alone with God, I knew He had spoken to me, and He had given me the direction I needed.  Have you ever had anything like this happen in your life?  If not, I ask you to not go "Ray Kinsella" on me and slough off this story and thought by thinking it could never happen to you.  It could happen to you.  It should happen to you.  But "Ray" you've got to build it before He comes.  You have to invest your time and effort in building a baseball field of sorts, maybe better said "a sanctuary" that gets you alone and tunes you into the voice of Almighty God.  If you will build this "place" in your heart, mind, and yes maybe a physical location like my riverbank that you can go before Him and seek His help, He will come to you and deliver His wisdom to you.  How can I be so bold to make this claim?  I've got it on good authority.  Along with the verse above, consider the next one:   "If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind." James 1:5-6 (ESV)   Oh I guess I forgot to mention that thing about faith when we ask for wisdom.  Why is that requirement put in there?  Maybe it is because all we can think of is needing wisdom to know what to do about our present situation, but God is looking at a deeper need down the road that we have, but do not see?  You see, faith is like a delivery system, and just like a delivery truck that eventually comes to our door bringing us the package we ordered, faith seeks, faith believes it will come, faith waits for it, faith understands that God has a plan that will help us, and then faith receives God's plan when it comes.  God gives wisdom when we seek it, and wisdom begins when we will accept by faith that it is coming because we trust God and the promise He has made to give us the wisdom we seek.  Like Ray Kinsella, we think we are only building something for someone else.  But, what God has in mind is specifically about you.  It is not about your perceived need right now, although that might be met.  It is not about getting you through a difficult time, although that might happen as well.  No, God is looking at the deeper need you have, a need that requires faith to seek, faith to find, and faith to receive something new into your life.  That is how it works.  God wants to deliver something new to you that will remind you that He is listening, and will bless you for coming to Him.  He is always about growing us in our faith in Him, and it is seeking His wisdom for your situation right now that grows your faith.  So don't stay bogged down with what you are struggling with right now.  Instead, seek wisdom from the King and remember:  If you seek it, IT will come.