What Are You Looking For?

You get what you pay for. You get as much out of it as you put into it. As you make your bed, so must you lie in it. These are all sayings that most of us are probably familiar, and there's quite a bit of truth in them all. What I want to focus on though, are the questions: "What are you looking for when you study God's Word?", "What are you looking for when you go to church?", and "What are you looking for in your relationship with God?"

Jesus asked the people that were following Him about John the Baptist, "What went ye out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken with the wind? But what went ye out for to see? A man clothed in soft raiment? behold, they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses. But what went ye out for to see? A prophet? yea, I say unto you, and more than a prophet." (Matthew 11:7-9) A lot of people went out to see John the Baptist, but there were a lot of reasons that they went. Some went to see the crazy guy eating locusts and honey, some to see a prophet.

All of the people found what they were looking for, but because many were looking lower, they were disappointed when they found the very thing they expected to see. Had they all been looking to find a prophet, they all would have found a prophet, and would have been amazed by God's presence in him. John the Baptist ended up in prison and beheaded because of this. Is this the attitude we take with us into prayer, into church, and into reading the Bible? Do we see what we expect to see, or do we open our hearts to receive the Word of God in a way that changes our lives?

Here's one we don't hear as often: "A bad workman blames his tools." If you're looking to find fault, if you're looking for something to give you an excuse for your attitude and behavior, look inside. The people around you can't make you into something that you aren't. As Hebrew 12:2 says, we need to keep our eye on Jesus, and not forget who He is. That is the only way we will be able to rightly see what we're looking at, and to receive the joy of the Lord, instead of being disappointed at finding what we sought.

God Can Find You

We begin this story in Numbers 11:13-15, where we find Moses completely disgruntled with the complaining of the Israelites. In the earlier portion of the chapter (Numbers 11:1-12), they have begun to grumble about the manna from Heaven, and instead want meat. We see Moses doing the right thing, and going to God for some help. You can obviously see the torment of Moses, and he's ready to die rather than continue to lead an utterly ungrateful people. God answers his prayer by having him appoint seventy elders, who would be consecrated and filled with the same Spirit as Moses (Numbers 11:16-24).

Now, we come to one of the most peculiar parts of the story. We find in Numbers 11:25 that the Lord came down in a cloud, and "put the Spirit on the seventy elders", but Numbers 11:26 finishes this by telling us that two of the men who were supposed to be at the Tent hadn't made it. We aren't ever informed why, but we do find that, even though they were not present at the Tent, and they were not near the cloud in which the Lord descended, they were filled with the same Spirit, and they also prophesied.

Have you ever missed church and been so down about it and didn't just worship God anyway? I know I have. I've been sick and laid in bed and moped about it while the people of God were worshiping just 15 minutes away from my house. This story is a great example how that, if we have the right attitude, and we're chosen of God, He can bless us wherever we are. The Spirit was moving where the chosen people of God were assembled, and the guys who couldn't make it got the same touch of God, too! It's good to be with the people of God if you can, but if you can't keep a good spirit about it, and worship God anyway, and He can still find you and bless you.