BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

strive after) fi rst of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides. Although I treasure all the verses in the Bible, if I could just give you one verse to help you succeed in life, I'd choose Matthew 6:33. If you have that one verse, and you're hungry after God, you'll know what to do: Seek fi rst of all God and His ways of doing and being right! Seek is an interesting word. It means "to try to fi nd, to search for something (like you would search for your car keys if you mislaid them); to diligently pursue, look for, explore, ask about and try to learn." Seeking isn't just waiting around to see if something comes your way. It's going after something. In Hebrew, one of the meanings of the word seek is "to require." I especially resonate with that defi nition because I require the Word of God to live. You could o er me the whole world made out of gold in exchange for God's Word and I wouldn't even be tempted. I wouldn't even have to think about it because for me, God's Word is a vital necessity. I know that to live in the kingdom of heaven on this earth the way God intends, I must have His Word. Another defi nition of seek in Hebrew is "to tread or frequent." In other words, seeking God and His ways isn't something you just do now and then. It's not just something you do once a week on Sunday, or when you've run out of money to pay your bills. It's something you do frequently—all the time. According to one dictionary, the word seek also carries the idea of putting forth e ort. It means "to try to fi nd or gain by any means, to endeavor." When I think about what it looks like to put e ort into seeking God and His ways, one person who comes to my mind is Jerry Savelle. Although he's been an on-fi re, Word-of-Faith preacher for many years now, he didn't always fi t that description. On the contrary, there was a time in his life when he had no use for preachers at all. If you've heard his testimony, then you know when he fi rst married Carolyn, she was constantly after him to go with her to church. And just as constantly, he told her no. He wasn't interested. But when Ken came to minister in Shreveport, La., where they lived, Carolyn made Jerry an o er he couldn't refuse. She told him that if he would come to hear Ken one time, if he didn't like what he heard, he'd never have to go with her to another church meeting again. Finally, Jerry agreed to the deal. He went to the last night of the meetings and the Word of Faith he heard changed everything for him. Can this really be true? he wondered. Is this for real? The next morning, he went to the automobile paint and body shop he owned and spent the day going over the notes he'd taken the evening before in the meeting. He looked up the scriptures he'd heard and found out, sure enough, they were in the Bible. Then, somebody came knocking on his door and gave him some tape recordings of Ken's messages. Listening to those tapes, Jerry realized the Word of God contained the answers to everything he'd been struggling with in his life. So he went after it. He started spending eight hours a day in the Word. He still had to do some work to keep the bills paid, but in the evening when his work was done, he'd come home, visit with his children before they went to bed, then spend hours in the Word. POINTS TO GET YOU THERE: 1 God not only promised to bless you spiritually but materially as well. (Matt. 6:26) 2 As a believer, you're not to worry that you're not going to have what you need fi nancially. (Matt. 6:31–32) 3 You prosper, not by seeking after material things but by seeking God. (Matt. 6:33, AMPC) 4 Seek God fi rst by spending time daily in God's Word and doing what it says. (Jas. 1:22) 5 The more of God's Word you know and act on, the more you will prosper in every area of life. (Josh. 1:8) Seeking God and His ways isn't something you just do now and then. B V O V : 2 9

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