“If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.” - Jeremiah 29:13
We often see Jeremiah 29:13 — “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me” — and relate it to our initial turning toward God. Deuteronomy 4:29 carries the same promise: “But from there you will search again for the Lord your God. And if you search for him with all your heart and soul, you will find him.” But what if those verses mean far more for our everyday relationship with God?
I've been volunteering in ministry for more than 20 years. I can't count how many small groups I've led or how many hearts I've tried to ignite with a love for the Lord. And there's one pattern I keep running into. It's one I understand, one I've experienced myself, and one that still grieves me: Christians aren't reading the Bible. Let's unpack that.
Just like exercising, eating right, or not putting your mouth on the public water fountain, we know reading the Bible would probably be good for us. And yet, we still don't do it. Why? I knew some of my own reasons, but I generously extended my probing questions to my husband too. Isn't he lucky? Here's the compilation:
It's boring.
It's hard to understand.
I don't see results from the effort.
I don't think it'll change anything. I'm too much of a mess-up.
I don't want to be convicted about anything.
I don't want to address my sin.
Life is good. I don't need the support.
I don't have enough time.
I've hit every one of those walls. In some seasons, I've leaned hard into I don't want to be convicted. In others, I've wondered if reading Scripture even mattered. I've been messing up in the same way for years. What's reading the Bible really going to do? Maybe you find yourself hitting one of those walls right now too. You're not alone.
But I think there is something underneath all of them. The way through isn't simply forcing ourselves to read more. It's wholehearted seeking. Cue Jeremiah 29:13 again: “If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.” Did you see that coming? God promises throughout Scripture that when we truly seek Him, He responds. That doesn't necessarily mean you'll suddenly hear a voice from Heaven or see a bright beam of light. Often, it's quieter than that.
I kind of miss radio dials. Remember those? You'd slowly turn the dial, listening through the static as you narrowed in on the station. The closer you got, the clearer the music became. Seeking God can feel a little like that. We turn our attention toward Him. We slow down. We keep showing up. It takes desire, patience, and consistency — in other words, wholehearted seeking.
So maybe the question isn't only, “How do I get myself to read the Bible?” Maybe the question before that is, “Do I really want to seek God?” And if the honest answer right now is I'm not sure, that's an important place to begin. Wholehearted seeking is ultimately a posture of the heart, but there are practical things we can do to help cultivate that posture.
I think of them as spiritual warm-ups.
Just like you wouldn't necessarily walk into a gym, throw the heaviest weight on the bar, and expect everything to go beautifully, sometimes we need a little preparation before we open the Bible. Small practices can help settle our minds, redirect our attention, and remind our hearts why we're there in the first place.
What does wholehearted seeking look like in practice? And how do we keep that posture through all the different seasons of life? That's what we'll unpack next — beginning with a few simple spiritual warm-ups that can help prepare your heart before you ever start reading.
