Seeking the One we’ve already found
“If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.” — Jeremiah 29:13
‘To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.’ — Augustine of Hippo
One of the things that I find most frustrating in life is losing things.
Pretty original, I know.
I bring it up because recently, I lost a pair of Birkenstocks in my parents-in-law's house. It's annoying because I'm 99.9% certain that they're in there somewhere, but I still can't find them whenever I visit.
Knowing that they're out there—just waiting to be found—and yet still needing to search for them is...irritating, to say the least.
And when it comes to searching for lost things, it doesn't take long for me to sigh, shrug my shoulders, give up, and head online to order a replacement.
Now, I know that giving up on finding a pair of lost overpriced sandals isn't a disaster. After all, they might actually be so lost that I'll never find them.
But the trouble is, I think I often show the same lack of persistence when it comes to seeking God.
Why we have to keep seeking God
If God loves us infinitely and wants to be with us forever, why do we need to keep seeking after Him?
It's because we're forgetful.
God never loses sight of us—but it's so easy for us to lose sight of Him as we turn our attention and affection onto other things in our lives.
So much of walking with God is re-orienting ourselves back towards Him. Because we're all still prone to being prodigals—running off in pursuit of another dream, the next experience, the new thing, and forgetting our First Love in the process.
Mercifully, because we're united to Jesus through our faith in Him, God is never lost to us, and we are never fully lost to Him. Sons and daughters, even when they run off and get lost, don't suddenly stop being children of their father.
But what we can lose is our experience and enjoyment of God. We can lose our awareness of His greatness, glory, beauty and love. We can lose our felt closeness with His presence.
That's why we hear throughout the Scriptures the drumbeat: keep seeking God.
Keep your focus on Him (Colossians 3:2). Keep your desire for Him (1 Chronicles 22:19). Keep drawing near to Him (James 4:8)
It's impossible for us to do any of this on our own. We just don't have it in us to keep seeking God in our own strength.
But God is so kind, because He Himself helps us to keep seeking Him. He lives within us by His Spirit, who prays for us in our weakness and works in us to awaken our desire to seek, love and obey Him (Romans 8:26, Philippians 2:13).
And in His kindness, He's also told us where to look for Him.
Where we’ll find God
Through His Word, God has revealed Himself to us. He's shown us exactly who He is, what He's like, and everything He's done to save us from sin and bring us back to Himself.
So, we open our Bibles, and seek Him there.
He's also revealed His glory in His creation. The heavens proclaim His glory, and the skies show us his skill as Creator (Psalm 19:1).
So, we go outside into His world, and seek Him there.
And He reveals Himself through His people, the Church. Whenever we gather together to hear the gospel, share communion, worship, pray and serve together, Jesus is there with us.
So, we meet with other Christians in our community, and seek Him there.
These are the means God has given us so that, through them, we might seek Him. And He promises that those who do will find Him:
‘Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and that he rewards those who sincerely seek him’ (Hebrews 11:6).
When we find God, we find our great reward, our soul's delight, our heart's treasure. He is worth seeking with everything that we are, because when we have Him, we have everything we could ever want or need.
Wherever you are in your walk with God, don't give up on seeking after Him, like I so often do with my lost possessions.
Because unlike my misplaced Birkenstocks, He's not hiding from us. He's not far away from us. He's with us, He wants us to find and have all of Him, and He's always guiding us along the right path that leads to Himself.
Thanks so much for reading, and have a great weekend!
Love,
Theo