Seeking God

“They do not return to the Lord their God, nor  seek Him for all this” [Hosea 7:10]

The basis of all religion is to seek God.  Israel was led and so encouraged that their lives through history have been a pageant of God’s unfathomed favour and wonder in a miraculous manifestation of provision and divine grace.  Yet for all that showering of benefaction and overshadowed blessing the word describes their state unflatteringly:  “. . . I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against Me’ Alas, sinful nation . . . They have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked to anger the Holy One of Israel, they have turned away backward’ ” [Isa 1:2, 4].

Although we may reproach them for their repeated waywardness, in spite of God’s favour, we must ask ‘are we any better in following God; does our heart stand with them or are we committed in full surrender to God’s purpose and will?’ To examine that conjecture we must consider what following or seeking God really is. It’s not complicated but may prove difficult because of the vagaries of our nature.  Adam left us a legacy of doubt and mistrust in God’s word, which rumbles through our conscious and automatic response to Him.  However we do know that “God is with the generation of the righteous.” [Ps 14:5]. Are we part of that august company?

Our unquestionable duty.

First:  “Remember now thy creator in the days of thy youth.” [Ecc 12:1. The encouragement to mankind starts early in their life, “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; . . .  for we are his offspring,” [Acts 17:28].  There is a liability mandate upon us to seek our creator, simply because he is our creator.  We should always seek the highest good and He, our God, is the highest good, and the best of all things.  Our expectation, satisfaction and fulfilment can only be in Him. None other can provide us with those aspects of life that will fill us, thrill us and still us in the storms of life.  But, in reality we are, as Adam’s sons, far from Him, and we have turned to our own ways.  “Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the LORD” [Lam 3:40].

Therefore the principal thing is to seek God and find Him; this is to be above all other aims in life. To do this our vision is automatically directed to the Son of His love, the manifestation of the Godhead in the flesh.  “I and my Father are one.” [John 10:30] and Jesus said to him, “He who has seen Me has seen the Father;” [John 14:9]. If we don’t find him in His sacrificial love he will find us as a consuming fire. [Heb 12:29]. Let Jeremiah speak to us: “Thus says the LORD: ‘Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, let not the mighty man glory in his might, nor let the rich man glory in his riches; But let him who glories glory in this, that he understands and knows Me,”  [Jer. 9:23-24]. Thus we should spend all to know him. The theme of the gospel is to prepare a people for the Lord [Luke 1:17], and that can only be done by seekers finding and knowing God.

Second: We ought to enjoy Him, but we cannot enjoy someone with whom we have a rage. The command “Come boldly to the throne of grace,” [Heb 4:16] is for those who have received responsive forgiveness.  God’s “lovingkindness is better than life, “[Ps 63:3] and how can God shower upon us those blessings of mercy when we fail to walk in his way and acknowledge him as our Saviour?  But, He is more than that, He is our benefactor and preserver and therefore he is our life, and keeper of our ways. The word says “Our father which art in heaven,” [Matt 6:9] but he is nearer than that, for “In Him we live, and move, and have our being.”  [Acts 17: 28]. We walk with him because we agree with him. [Amos 3:3]. For “in his favour is life.”

Thirdly, we seek him to be like Him.  We become like the thing or person we worship, in all aspects of life. The reasonable command is this:  “that you may proclaim [shew forth] the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvellous light;” [1 Pet 2:9]; transformed into His likeness to reveal eternal treasure [2 Cor. 4:7]. We cannot resemble him in his divine attributes, omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence, but certainly in his human qualities; love grace and mercy.