There are several ways of seeking God which must prove to be failures. By Charles Spurgeon Jeremiah chapter 29 verse 13 You shall seek me and find me, when you shall search for me with all your heart. Scripture demands that our seeking God should be done with all our heart.

There are several ways of seeking God which must prove to be utter failures. One is to seek Him with no heart at all. This is done by those who take their book and read prayers, never thinking of what they say, or who attend a place of worship and hear others pray, but never enter in. This is done by those who bend the knee in the evening and mutter pious words, but never think, or those who rise in the morning and read sacred sentences, but never consider, or those who with regard to divine things are as little concerned as if the gospel were all a legend or an old wives' tale, not worth a moment's thought.

When I have been traveling, I have sometimes seen women reading those trashy novels. I have seen them waste their tears on some imaginary heroine or hero, and yet they and others hear about the majesty and the love of God without emotion. They read of heaven and hell, and Christ and God, with scarcely a thought. Dear friend, you will never find the Lord if you seek Him in a heartless, unthinking manner. God is not mocked. If any of you have fallen into a formal religion and seek the Lord without your heart, then your seeking is in vain.

Some seek God with a false heart. Their piety is a transient feeling and not deep soul work. It is mere sentimentality and not the engraving of God's Spirit upon the heart. Beware of a false religious excitement, of being borne up with religious gas as some are, inflated like balloons by a tear-jerking sermon. only to burst by and by when most they need something to support them. May God grant us to be saved from a lie in the heart, for it is a deadly canker, fatal to all hope of finding the Lord.

Some seek Him also with a double heart. They have a heart towards God, and they have a heart towards sin. They have a heart towards the pardon, but they have also a heart towards the transgression. They would gladly serve both God and Mammon. They would build an altar for Jehovah and still keep Dagon in his place. If your heart is divided, then you will be found lacking. Those prayers will never get to heaven, which only fly upward with one wing. If one oar pulls towards earth and the other towards heaven, then the boat of the soul will revolve in a circle of folly but never reach the happy shore. Beware of a double heart.

Some seek God with half a heart. They have a little concern and are not altogether indifferent. They somewhat think when they pray or read or sing, but their thoughts are quite trivial and inconsequential. Superficial in all things, the seed is sown in stony ground, and soon it is withered away because there is no depth of earth. May the Lord save us from this.

Now, you who are seeking Christ, remember that if you would find him, then you must neither seek him without heart, nor with a false heart, nor with a double heart, nor with a half heart. But you shall find me, says the Lord, when you shall search for me with all your heart. If your hearts are not right with God, then you must take your place with the wicked in hell. Lost man, what will you do when you go down to eternal hell? Others, like seeds sown on stony ground, hear the word and at once receive it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time.