Devotional Thought – Our Earliest Aim

04 Jan Devotional Thought – Our Earliest Aim

“I love them that love me; and those that seek me early shall find me.” Prov. 8:17

It is the boldest, greatest aim that any marksman could ever take – to seek God. But to tell the marksman to take his earliest aim at his greatest object is surely one of the most paradoxical statements ever uttered as well. We certainly don’t teach a beginner to take his first aim at the object that is farthest away. No. We put a large target up close, well within the his reach. We operate under the principle that it is better to begin with that which is closer, easier, and then move to the more distant, difficult object.

Here, however, we are taught an opposite truth. We are not told to move from less to more, from the easiest to the hardest, from the smallest to the greatest.  Our God says, “Let your earliest aim be at the greatest, highest, best – Me!” In essence, God is telling us that if we wish to be successful spiritual marksmen, we must make it our aim to hit the farthest object first. The beginning object of our imitation shouldn’t be some other person, but God. Our earliest aim should be our highest.

We see this daily in the world around us. The things that most stimulate and excite us are not those of a lower, inferior form – the cheap knockoffs – but those which are the highest, greatest, best. I would much rather be bathed in sunlight than in candlelight. My children are more excited about the dawning of a new day when I throw open the blinds and they see the sun than they are when I just turn on the light.

This principle is true not only in the natural world, but also in the spiritual world. That’s why I must point my children to God before anything or anybody else. I must teach them to focus on the Eternal One who is altogether lovely, not on physical beauty that is fleshly and fleeting. I must not lead them into and leave them into the outer court, but into the Holy of Holies where He who is highest reigns supreme. I would have them move from God to man than from man to God.

I say to you, “Before anything else, aim for the heavens!” Don’t take your first aim at those things which are on the ground. Don’t say to yourself, “I’ll start low and slow and when I grow comfortable with that then I will gradually begin to take higher aim.” Aim your earliest arrow at He who is the highest. Seek after God early in the morning. Don’t follow some mortal man’s path to Heaven, follow Jesus! Don’t measure your life by the world’s greatest philosophers, professors or preachers. Measure your life by Christ’s! Don’t even pattern your life after an angel. Pattern your life after the One who is better than the angels!

Don’t think that it is best to first try to imitate the life that you can most easily reach. Reach for the One who is unreachable. To be sure, you will never reach such a lofty and holy goal, but that’s the glory of it all. You will always have Him as the greatest, highest, best model. Think about it. What glory is there in reaching the ideal? Your excitement, exhilaration and aspiration would cease. Your wings would fold and fall. That which will strengthen you for the flight is the fact that your flight will never be over.

Poets write of hills that are everlasting. Climber, that is what you need – a summit that not only can never been seen, but one that can never be reached. Christ is just such a hill of holiness. His supreme summit will be just as far after a day’s worth of climbing as it was when you first set out in the morning. The glory is found in the climbing, not in the reaching of the goal. Those whose soul seek Him will find the One who is the eternal forerunner, so seek Him early!