Devo from Bill Blair

Year Round Hunter
 “You will seek me and you will find me, when you seek me with all your heart” Jer. 29:13

With hunting season in full swing, I’ll admit, it’s not easy to focus on much of anything else. It may start with your favorite hunting magazine but soon the fever takes over and you find yourself walking for hours in Bass Pro Shop, drooling over all the new scent eliminating gear, compound bows, and the latest fused bullets. For several weeks now you’ve been preparing for those crisp mornings filled with quiet waiting, cold fingers, and chance to land a massive buck. Perhaps your bow is ranged at 20, 30, and 40 yards and you’ve started shooting your broad-heads, or your scope is zeroed in and you’ve begun to expect the recoil and compensate for it. Your sleep is often interrupted by a sense of urgency to beat the light of morning to the woods.
Now the time is upon you, the woods are alive with squirrels and the occasional doe, but for all your preparation you’re at a loss for why you aren’t seeing the big guy. Did your truck lights spook him on your way in? Is he picking up your scent? Is the rut late this year? Has he moved to another part of the property?
Good hunters know that there is one element of preparation that is more important than any other when it comes time for deer season. This element gives the most advantage to hunters because it helps them focus on the area of greatest deer activity on the land. This is the element is known as scouting. Unlike other elements of preparation, scouting is year round. Good hunters don’t just appear when hunting season begins; rather, they take the careful time to be in the woods, checking the signs that deer leave, and tracing the patterns of the deer for shelter and feeding spots. Because nature produces different foods at different times, the sources of the deer’s food are periodically changing. Good hunters pay attention to these changes and adapt accordingly.
In the same way God is scouting after us. Though he knows our every movement, he seeks after us daily. With his whole heart he scouts the fields and woods of our lives hoping to spend time with us. He is excitedly awaiting the opportunities that we grant him to do something amazing in our lives. What if you granted him those opportunities every day? What if you sought him as heartily as he seeks after you? In the Bible, Jeremiah reminds us of how much God loves his people and how he longs to bring them into his presence. He knows us far better than we know him; however he created us to know him and to seek after him daily. He simply asks us to seek him out in the way he seeks us out… with all our heart.
Let’s pray, “Father God, I want to seek you with all my heart. I admit sometimes I have become too busy for you and that is ridiculous. I see now that you go to great lengths to draw me into your presence. I want to know you. Help me to stay in your presence, In Jesus name, Amen.”
Happy Hunting,
Bill Blair