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Daily Devotional – IT IS TIME TO SEEK THE LORD

By March 8, 2017Daily Devotionals

IT IS TIME TO SEEK THE LORD

Prayer: We still have a big job to accomplish the rest of this school year. Dear Lord, please help us be faithful with the work You have put before us. Thank You for Your help. Amen.

Scripture: Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your unplowed ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until he comes and showers righteousness on you. Hosea 10:12 NIV


I wrestled with God somewhat over this message, feeling it was a “Duh” moment. We pray – that is what we do – continually. Just as you probably do, I consider myself a prayer warrior. You sacrifice precious time to come each week to seek the Lord in prayer for your school and yourself. I am the head of an international prayer ministry, I am on the National Prayer Committee, more than anything I love to seek God… and, in that moment, I realized that this is God’s heart for all of us. That we love nothing more than to seek Him, that we trust nothing more than to seek Him, that in good times and bad, gain and loss, birth and death, when God reveals Himself and when we do not understand, in health and sickness, in the known and unknown, prosperity and need, in righteousness and sin, in peace and conflict and in all other circumstances, above all our worry, analyzing, strategy, work, and everything else we try – above all – it is time to seek the Lord.

These verses strike a chord with me knowing that I need to be sowing in the Spirit of God; “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness…” The only way to bring the lost to Him – to plow the unplowed ground – is with continual prayer, a humble spirit and hard work. Love begets love.

These verses sit in Hosea among words of discipline for Ephraim (Israel and Judah.) The Expositor’s Bible Commentary says that,

“Ephraim had been well trained in past days, like a heifer broken to the yoke. She had come, however, to enjoy only the work of threshing grain (pleasant to the heifer because she could then eat her fill of grain.)…. Hosea pauses to give advice. The people should sow “righteousness” and they would reap kindness in return. Therefore unplowed ground would be plowed. Admittedly, just as plowing is hard work, so it would be hard for the people to change their lifestyle; but they must do so. Only by searching for the Lord and His righteousness would they be delivered from coming punishment.”

I don’t know about you, but this sounds like our Nation to me. We certainly can see evidence of choosing to use our time and energy towards efforts that we can fill our wallets and bellies with. I do not say this in judgment but with a broken spirit, guilty of enjoying many comforts and asking God to strengthen me to thresh less and plow more.

Our country is in the forefront of our minds along with finances, the state of the family, the Church, children, education, media, and world affairs. How will these things affect us as individuals, our families, our schools? The questions spin through my mind and I am sure yours too. Friend, indeed, it is time to seek the Lord. If we are to find any answers, any peace, any hope – it is in Him. No amount of work or worry can change what is about to happen, but we pray to a God, the One true God, Who controls every minute of every day.

What time is it? Time to seek the Lord. Time to sow righteousness. Time to plow. Our lives, our school year, students, challenges. And I believe that He will reward our obedience by coming and showering righteousness on us just as this verse in Hosea says.

My prayer for you is that you would know it is always time to seek the Lord; it is time to break up your unplowed ground and be showered with righteousness.

Copyright Kathy Branzell. Email [email protected]