For thus saith the LORD unto the house of Israel, Seek ye me, and ye shall live. — Amos 5:4
It was not so long ago that there was a slogan going around that was “YOLO.” It was short for the term you only live once and was a life slogan to those who adopted it. They believed that because they only lived once, they should live and do everything that they possibly could however they could do it.
I have read many stories where people shared this as the reasoning behind illegal activities, unsafe activities, immoral activities, and many other instances. They said that they only live once and they wanted to do anything that they could while they could.
There is some truth to the statement that we only live once. We are only granted one time through this thing called life and there are no do-overs. While we may only get one chance at life, are we really living life as we should?
Here in this verse in Amos, we read the statement “seek ye me and ye shall live.” It’s a pretty direct statement that leaves little to the imagination. God said to the house of Israel that the only way to live is to seek Him. In other words, God is life and without seeking Him first, you can never truly live.
Instead of focusing on living once and obtaining all the experiences that are possible in this one life no matter the expense, we should be focused on truly living. That would be to seek God first. We should place God first in our lives, love Him with all our hearts, and realize that everything in life is through God. When we do this, then we can truly live!
