“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:13 NKJV
There was a popular bumper sticker that Christians used for years which had a simple 3-word statement, “I Found God”, or “I found IT”. The intention I suppose was well-meaning, but the precision was atrocious. God is not an “It”, He is a person; nor did we “find” Him. He was never lost, we were. But I am sure to untold millions their conversion experience was understood through the filter of, “Look what I found”. The truth is, each one of us before we were “saved” were dead in our trespass and sins and blind to our need of Christ. We were incapable of finding much of anything spiritual from the Lord. It was the Lord who initiated this search through grace and graciously awakened us to our need of Him and in response, we said “Yes”. He sought us. He pursued us. His amazing, relentless mission staggers the imagination.
But here is the deal…
This journey started with the Lord pursuing me…
When He found me…
And redeemed me…
It was now in my court to pursue Him…
With every fiber of my being…
One of my favorite quotations comes from the early Church Father and theologian, Augustine, when he writes:
“I came to love you late, O Lord, so ancient and new; I came to love you late. You were within me and I was outside, where I rushed about wildly searching for you like some monster loose in Your beautiful world. You were with me, but I was not with you. You called me, You shouted to me, You wrapped me in Your splendor, You sent my blindness reeling. You gave out such a delightful fragrance, and I drew it in and came breathing hard after You. I tasted and it made me hunger and thirst; You touched me, and I burned to know Your peace.”
There have been times in my life where God seemed distant, almost like He was hiding. I suspect most believers know the highs and lows of walking with God. There are days you feel you are on a mountaintop and times you are in a pit. There are moments you can almost sense a palpable presence of the Lord and other times it seems He is a million miles away. Why does it work like that?
I have come to the conclusion that there are moments God may seem distant or “hiding” because it is one of the only ways, He can reveal to us our hunger level for Him. How long can we stay spiritually dry or distant before we arise and pursue Him?
God, by His very nature is awesome and self-sustained. C.S. Lewis once wrote that, “for God to be God, He has no needs, for whatever He needs He can meet in Himself.” That is so true.
But might I suggest that perhaps even God likes the thought of being desired…
Being wanted…
Being pursued…
It’s not that He is needy…
It simply demonstrates the reality of our heart condition…
This pandemic is coming to an end. The information has been released that very soon we will transition to a sense of normalcy. The question for me, and every believer, is will we transition back to our old spiritual state prior to this pandemic?
I want to be a pursuer…
I want to know and receive ALL of the Lord that is available…
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