Seeking and Finding

My son was reading the passage in the Gospels about “Ask, Seek, Knock”, recently, and it made me think about how many times in Scripture we are encouraged to seek the Lord.

In Jeremiah 29: 13 God says to the exiles in Babylon, “You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” So there is a condition: When you seek Me with all your heart, then you will find Me. So we must seek the Lord. That is the condition of finding Him.

But does that mean that we are left to ourselves to find the Lord, to search for Him in order to invite His presence and action in our lives? Does it mean that our action of seeking Him is the first move? Does it mean that God only acts after our seeking?

No!

Listen to what God says in Jeremiah 24: 7 to those same exiles in Babylon: “I will give them a heart to know that I am the Lord, and they shall be My people and I will be their God, for they shall return to me with their whole heart.”

So the children of Israel will meet the condition of returning to God with their whole heart. God will respond by being their God in the fullest blessing. But the reason that they will return to Him with their whole heart is that God gave them a heart to know Him! His action was first and decisive.

So now connect that with Jeremiah 29: 13. The condition there was that they must seek the Lord with their whole heart ... then God will be found by them. But now, we see that the promise in Jeremiah 24: 7 is that God Himself will give them such a heart so that they will return to Him with their whole heart.

This is one of the most basic things we need to see about the Bible. It is full of conditions we must meet for God’s blessings to flow and for us to meet His standards for our lives. But God does not leave us to meet these conditions on our own – because we never can. The first and decisive work before and in our faith, is God’s grace that goes ahead of us. This is Good News for us – and for unsaved friends and family we are praying for!

Let’s read Acts 17:27-28a ... “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward Him and find Him—though He is not far from any one of us. For in Him we live and move and exist.”

What will we find when we seek God’s presence?

According to Matthew 28: 20 ... we find God Himself!

And when God is there, we have:

Psalm 32: 7 ... Safety

Ephesians 4: 7 ... Grace 1 Peter 1: 8-9 ... Joy Psalm 29: 11 ... Peace Zephaniah 3: 17 ... Love James 1: 5 ... Wisdom John 10: 10 ... Life 2 Corinthians 12: 9 ... Power Isaiah 40:29 ... Strength Psalm 130: 4 ... Forgiveness

Romans 15: 13 ... Hope

Ephesians 2: 10 ... Purpose

When we are alone in His presence our hearts learn to worship Him for all that He is!