Click to Download: Pursuing God with More Energy Than You Give Anything Else

A hard question most Christians never ask themselves.

I want to ask you something, and I want you to sit with it before you read another word.

Think about the thing in your life that gets your best energy. Your job. A hobby. A relationship. A goal you have been chasing. Whatever it is — think about how much of yourself you genuinely pour into it. The early mornings. The late nights. The mental space it occupies even when you are not actively working on it.

Now ask yourself this honestly:

Has God ever received that kind of energy from you?

Not the minutes left over at the end of a long day. Not a quick prayer in the car when something goes wrong. Not a Sunday-morning obligation you check off and move on from. Your actual best.

If that question makes you uncomfortable, it should. It makes me uncomfortable too. Because if we are honest — truly honest — most of us have given God what was left, not what was first.

God Did Not Say “Try Your Best.” He Said “All Your Heart.”

There is a question I have wrestled with for years, and I will not pretend I have fully resolved it:

“Will God accept Christians who have not learned to love Him with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength before they die?”

That is not a rhetorical question. It is the question Jesus answered when He was asked about the greatest commandment. He did not say “Love God with most of your heart.” He did not say “Love God when it is convenient.” He said all of it — heart, soul, mind, and strength. (Mark 12:30)

And then Jeremiah 29:13 tells us: “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Not part of it. Not the portion left after everything else takes its share. All of it.

This is not a suggestion tucked away in an obscure passage. It is the first and greatest commandment, and God means what He says. I have seen in Scripture, time and again, that He does not accept half-hearted worship. Nadab and Abihu offered fire He did not command and He took their lives. Uzzah reached out to steady the Ark in a way God had not authorized and God struck him dead. These are sobering accounts. God is holy, and He is specific about how He desires to be sought and served.

I am not saying this to condemn anyone. I am saying it because I love your soul, and I would rather you hear a hard truth from someone who cares than a comfortable word that leaves you unprepared for the day you stand before Jesus.

The Difference Between Knowing About God and Actually Knowing Him

I have worshipped with seventeen congregations over nearly forty years. In that time, I have met thousands of people who call themselves Christians. And I can tell you — there is a visible difference between those who diligently seek God and those who do not. You can hear it in the way they talk about Him. You can see it in how they handle trials. You can feel it when they pray. You can see it by how much time they spend together all because of their love for God.

Diligent seekers stand out. They are rare. And I believe part of the reason they are rare is that no one has told most Christians that there is a difference between knowing about God and truly knowing Him. That concern is what fuels this ministry.

You can attend church every Sunday. You can follow the five avenues of worship correctly. You can have your doctrine right. And still have a heart that is far from Him.

Jesus said as much: “Not everyone who says to Me, Lord, Lord, shall enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matthew 7:21) Many people will stand before Him on that day pointing to their religious activity — and He will say He never knew them.

That ought to stop us cold.

Knowing God requires engagement. It requires effort. It requires that we seek Him the way a man searches for silver — with exhaustive, relentless, purposeful pursuit. Proverbs 2 tells us that if we seek wisdom and understanding this way, then we will find the knowledge of God. Not before. Not without the work.

David Was Not Passive About This

When I think about what wholehearted pursuit looks like in a real life, I think about David.

David did not casually acknowledge God. He wrote, “My soul thirsts for You in a dry and weary land where there is no water.” (Psalm 63:1) That is not the language of someone who fits God in when he has time. That is a man consumed. That is a man who understood that nothing else in his life could fill what only God could fill.

And God called him a man after His own heart.

David also failed. He sinned in ways that were public and devastating. But he got back up. He poured out his heart in repentance. He prayed, “Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” (Psalm 51:10) He did not use his failures as an excuse to walk away from God. He used them as a reason to press deeper.

That is the pursuit God is looking for. Not perfection. A heart that refuses to stop seeking Him, even when it has fallen short.

Why Most Christians Never Get There

I will be frank with you, because I believe you can handle it.

Have you ever examined yourself against Scripture and been concerned that your church is lukewarm like the church at Laodicea or that your church has lost its first love like the church of Ephesus? Many in this generation are living comfortably in a middle ground — not living in outright rebellion, but not on fire either. They attend services. They try to be good people. But God is not their consuming passion, and they know it. It’s just never spoken out loud and never addressed.

And the reason — in most cases — is not that they don’t want a closer relationship with God. It is that no one has ever told them there is one available. No one has shown them the difference between what they have and what is possible. They don’t know what they don’t know. They are, as I describe it, asleep in the light.

The busyness of life is the enemy of diligent seeking. Work, family, entertainment, obligations — these things will fill every hour you give them. They will never stop demanding your time. The question is whether you will decide, at some point, that nothing is going to come between you and God. Not the schedule. Not the exhaustion. Not the demands of everyone around you.

That decision has to be made deliberately. It does not happen by accident.

What Diligent Seeking Actually Looks Like

This is not about adding a religious routine to an already full life. It is about reordering your life around God.

Begin your day with Him before anything else gets your attention. Even fifteen focused minutes in the Word and prayer — before your phone, before your email, before the noise of the day begins — is an act of surrender that tells God He is first. Do it consistently and watch what happens to the rest of your day.

Study the Bible to encounter God, not just to accumulate knowledge. There is a difference between reading to check a box and reading to find Him. Read a passage and ask what it tells you about who God is. Highlight every verse that reveals His nature and character. Meditate on those verses. Pray over them. Let them replace the shallow impressions of God that the world has given you with something truer and weightier.

Pray with intentionality, not just in passing. Jesus withdrew to solitary places to pray. Daniel knelt three times a day, every day — even when a law had been passed making it potentially fatal to do so. He did not pray for God to spare his life. He gave thanks, as was his custom. That is what a close relationship with God produces: a settled trust that does not waver when circumstances turn against you.

Be honest about what is competing for the space God should occupy. Name it. And make the hard decision to cut it back, or cut it out, if necessary. Not because God is harsh, but because He is worth it — and because you will never seek Him with all your heart while something else is sitting on the throne of your life.

The Question That Will Matter on Judgment Day

I want to close with the question I raised at the beginning, because I do not want you to move past it too quickly.

When you stand before Jesus, what will you be able to say about how you sought Him? Will you be able to say honestly that you gave Him your best? That He was your first love — not just in word, but in the actual hours and energy of your life?

The church at Ephesus followed correct doctrine. Jesus still held something against them: they had left their first love. (Revelation 2:4) Doctrine without pursuit is not enough. Truth without spirit is not true worship.

There will be no sadder moment than standing before Jesus having spent a lifetime being religious — and hearing Him say He never truly knew you.

Today is the day to make a decision. Not tomorrow. Not when life settles down. Today.

Seek God with more energy than you give anything else. He is not asking for your perfection. He is asking for your all. And He promises — to those who seek Him diligently — that they will find Him. I can testify that is true.

That promise is still standing. The question is whether you will take it seriously.

Father, I pray for every person reading this. Stir up holy hunger in them. Show them the difference between what they have and what is possible with You. Remove whatever is sitting in first place in their lives that does not belong there. And give them the courage to seek You with everything they have — before it is too late. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

— Earnestly Pursuing God Ministries

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Click to Download: Pursuing God with More Energy Than You Give Anything Else