Where do you turn first when you have a decision to make? Where do you go when there’s a problem? I’m not talking theoretically, I’m talking very practically. How do you make your decisions? What determines your next step? Who do you go to with your problem? Who’s care do you seek?

Did you know God literally LOOKS for ways to defend and show his strength to anyone who is fully committed to him? Anyone who will come to him first is who he wants to offer divine power to. But why is this so hard for us? Why do we try to do it ourselves first? Why do we trust other sources for our answers, and overlook our God who holds it all?

Oh, I know why … because the enemy of our soul works hard to keep us from accessing the power that defeats him every single time. The enemy never wants you to remember your best first choice is always God. You absolutely cannot fail when you seek God first and remain committed to him.

One of my favorite scriptures is 2 Chronicles 16:9, “The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” Oh, the visual of that! God’s eyes are not just taking a casual glance over the earth, skimming over the details – No, he is intently searching. He’s looking at every detail, listening to every prayer, watching every next step, to find those who are fully committed to him. Those who will come to him first. Those who will trust in him with their whole heart.

If that’s what he’s searching for, does he find it in YOU? Really, is that you? Or has God just become your back up plan, your last resort, your emergency call?

If you could only see the supernatural strength he has available for you. If you could only imagine the divine details he has aligned and waiting for you … but you only access them when your heart is turned to him first. When he is your first call. When he is your go-to instead of your backup. When he is your first thought instead of your after-thought. When your heart is fully committed to God, then YOU ARE THE ONE HIS SEARCHING EYES FIND to send his supernatural strength to.

I love the hidden object puzzles. It’s the cluttered scene with hundreds of random objects, and you’re searching for the hidden cat, the hidden sailboat and the hidden chicken drumstick. You have to look closely and not be distracted by the details of everything else you’re seeing. What helps you most is to know what what the hidden object looks like. You get an image of that object in your head, then you search through the mess for the match.

God is searching through the mess for the match. He knows precisely what a heart committed to him looks like, and he will always find it.

The problem is, we struggle to know what God looks like in our mess. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never actually seen God so it can sometimes be hard to know when I’ve found him. God, is that little voice you? God, is that closed door from you? Am I supposed to search for a key to unlock it myself, knock on it, tear it down, or keep moving down the hall?

Well, the good news is, this isn’t about your eyes, this is about God’s eyes. Your eyes are not required to see God. God’s eyes see you. It’s the eyes of the LORD that search the whole earth. And what his eyes are looking for is the heart that is fully committed to him.

That’s your part. Commit your heart to him. Not eyes that can see him. Not a mind that can understand him. Just a heart committed to him. And when your heart is committed to him, he naturally becomes your first call, your go to, your primary thought. I’ve got to talk to God about this. I need to ask him first.

When God’s eyes find a heart committed to him like that, then he sends his special strength to take the next step, make the necessary changes, and move in the right direction. Your committed heart is what he has always been looking for. Not your cleaned up life. Not your checked boxes and righteous routine. Not your polished prayer or perfected image. Nope, honey, just your committed heart.

Let’s go back to our scripture for today, 2 Chronicles 17:9, “The eyes of the Lord search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” These are the words of seer named Hanani speaking to King Asa of Judah. A seer was a person who had the ability to see supernatural things and discern the will of God. Remember, this was before the gift of the Holy Spirit, so it took a special person with a special gift to hear from God.

King Asa was a good leader who continually sought God for guidance. Because of that, God had given him many great and impossible victories. But, after all of his success, King Asa made a mistake and he put his trust in an ally king for his next move instead of seeking God as he had done in the past. The seer is now telling King Asa, because you put your trust in a person instead of trust in God, you missed your chance at the ultimate victory.

What we often miss is God has victory aligned for us. However, we dismiss ourselves from destined victory when we trust in anything or anyone other than God. When our first call becomes a person instead of a prayer, victory if forfeited. When our go-to becomes a google search or ChatGPT instead of our God, then victory is forfeited. Why? Because God’s eyes are searching through the mess to find the heart that is FULLY committed to him, and that heart is the one who gets his supernatural strength for victory.

The MSG translation says it like this, “God is constantly on the lookout for people who are totally committed to him. You were foolish to go for human help when you could have had God’s help.”

Which help do you want here? Do you want human help or do you want God’s help? What’s your first choice?

Now, the next paragraph in 2 Chronicles 16 stopped me in my tracks. Verse 12-13, “In the 39th year of his reign, Asa developed a serious foot disease. Yet even with the severity of his disease, he did not seek the Lord’s help but turned only to his physicians. So he died in the 41st year of his reign.”

Here’s what this is NOT saying. This is not saying doctors are bad. This is not saying medical care is wrong. This is not saying God punished King Asa for going to a human doctor and made him die.

What this is saying is King Asa’s heart was not seeking God FIRST, and because of that he forfeited special strength available to him. King Asa was ONLY turning to physicians and that was the problem. That problem forfeited victory.

Where are you placing your primary trust? Really, WHO IS YOUR PRIMARY CARE? Is that still God or has that become a man in a white coat or a woman with a stethoscope?

God’s hand can move THROUGH a physician, but you must seek God FIRST over the physician. A doctor, a diet, a pill, or an answer from ChatGPT absolutely does NOT replace crying out to God.

God may have victory here for you, but you will dismiss yourself from it if you don’t seek him first and fully.

Remember, God’s eyes are intently searching the whole earth and he’s just looking for a heart that is fully committed to him. A heart that knows HE is the answer. A heart that first wants to seek God for the answer. Will he find your heart in is search? Your heart, hidden in this mess with all these problems and distractions. Your heart, still committed to him, coming to him as your first call.

Problem – seek God.
Sickness – seek God.
Opportunity – seek God.
Decision – seek God.

That’s the heart God is looking for and when he finds it, he has special strength to pour out!

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