Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you. Hosea 10:12
There was a lady driving downtown for an important job interview but, even though she planned some extra time for it, she couldn’t find a parking place anywhere within walking distance of the company’s building. Desperate, she began to pray, “God, please help me! If you help me find a parking place I promise I’ll be good and I’ll go back to church! I’ll start praying and giving money to the poor, I’ll…” Just at that moment a spot to park appeared and she quickly said, “Never mind God, I found one.”
The lady in that joke is a good example of someone seeking … but not seeking God. Often we approach God seeking protection, healing, fame, blessing, forgiveness, money, experiences, power, etc. instead of simply seeking God and His glory. There are a ton of benefits from the search for God but they can’t be the motivation for the true seeker. This is one area in life where deception is not an option!
And Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the Lord sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him. But if you forsake him, he will reject you forever. 1 Chronicles 28:9
Sometimes I feel we are similar to dogs chasing cars. We are so limited in our abilities and understanding- we are so slow and base. And then, like the dog with a car finally caught, what do we do when God allows us to find Him? When God reveals a tiny bit of the mind-blowing, frightening reality of His perfect holiness and infinite immensity, what can we do except collapse in a seizure of fear and awe?
Our search for God is necessarily flawed from the start because we are limited and God is limitless. We can understand God about as much as a tea-cup can hold the ocean. We can only contain so much. But God has allowed us, through nature and supernatural revelation, to get a glimpse of His majesty. Though the entire ocean can’t fit in a tea-cup, it can still hold ocean water.
I’m slowly reading through A.W. Tozer’s The Knowledge Of The Holy and I have been impressed with God’s utter transcendence in all categories. And though Tozer does his best to approach the unapproachable, over and over again he is forced to highlight our inadequacies when it comes to the nature of the infinite God. Though we are unable, the encouragement to seek is not canceled. It is the same as other commands we can never keep yet are encouraged to attempt (holiness, perfection, honesty, etc.). We are like children attempting to help our Father do something that only He can do… and it warms His heart. Sometimes He even does the thing while leaving us astonished- thinking we were more involved than we really were! Yes, this includes seeking.
God looks down from heaven on humankind to see if there are any who are wise, who seek after God. They have all fallen away, they are all alike perverse; there is no one who does good, no, not one. Psalm 53:2-3 No one is truly wise; no one is seeking God. Romans 3:11
Sin corrupted humanity and it began in the garden of Eden. It was there that we can see the pattern of depravity begin. Once sin infected Adam & Eve, they were gripped by shame and a fear of their heavenly Father. They immediately attempted to do something to cover up their moral nakedness (sewing leaves together) and they hid from God. But God also revealed what would become His normal pattern of dealing with sinful humanity: He came calling for them- seeking them– even as they hid. And even now God seeks you. These words are a tiny echo of His voice calling your name in the garden that surrounds you.
For the Son of Man came to seek and save those who are lost. Luke 19:10
You may be thinking that I am being presumptuous when I claim that God is seeking you because, after all, you aren’t lost.