Sleepwalking is no way to live!

Have you ever misplaced your car keys? Do you remember how hard you then looked for them? For that moment in time, nothing else mattered!

Take a pause…think about the intensity you felt as you searched for your keys, or whatever it was you lost. This kind of “proactive seeking” is very essential if you desire to experience “Conscious Living.”

A great example from Scripture is King Josiah:

2 Chronicles 34:1–3 Josiah was eight years old when he became king, and he reigned thirty-one years in Jerusalem. ² He did right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left. ³ For in the eighth year of his reign while he was still a youth, he began to seek the God of his father David; and in the twelfth year he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of the high places, the Asherim, the carved images and the molten images.

There is a lot we can learn from this young man, he is a great example of what it takes to “Seek” God!

Consider the decisions he made:

In verse 3 – he illustrates the first step in Conscious Living – Proactive thinking. Josiah did not “wait” for something to happen. Notice, “he began to seek the God of his father David.”  It will not just happen…you have to decide if you want to go after God or not!

Verse 2 testifies to the level of commitment he made. “and walked in the ways of his father David and did not turn aside to the right or to the left.” Josiah took no side trips; he walked straight toward his goal. Conscious Living requires a person to think about what they are doing AS they do it! This is not dictating the future but trying to plan for it.

Scriptures promise that when we seek, we will find.

Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

The Bible is packed full of examples, no one that ever sought God with a sincere heart was disappointed!

When we seek God, a natural consequence will be taking a stand for holiness! Verse 3 and following show Josiah’s total commitment to God. In his 12th year he “purged” the land of idolatry. Here is how Scripture describes what he did: “he chopped down; also the Asherim, the carved images and the molten images he broke in pieces and ground to powder.”

An individual that lives with God consciously allows the Spirit of God to purge his life of sin. Holiness becomes more important than happiness! That is where you find “Joy” which is far more constant than happiness, which fluctuates with circumstances.

The so What: Does your heart long for God? Have you set goals that lead to a life that is consciously aware of God? Do you live life wide-awake, or are you sleep walking?