Seeking God

“Though God…has provided answers to our questions concerning Him, the answers by no means lie on the surface. They must be sought by prayer, by long meditation on the written Word, and by earnest and well-disciplined labor. However brightly the light may shine, it can be seen only by those who are spiritually prepared to receive it.” (A. W. Tozer)

This does not, however, mean the answers are only available to a chosen few. They are available to all who seek God. That is what Tozer was referring to when he wrote about “those who are spiritually prepared.”

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the LORD…” (Jeremiah 29:13-14)

After my return to Jesus, having spent decades away from Him, I reached out to a treasured friend from the “bad old days,” witnessing to her that God had healed my life and He could heal hers, too. I showed her Psalm 71:20, one of my favorite passages: “Though you have made me see troubles, many and bitter, you will restore my life again.” She looked at the scripture in my Bible, then said, “Yeah, well, we’ll see,” in a skeptical tone. From her attitude, I realized that she was waiting for, even expecting, God to come to her like a puppy with His tail between His legs, begging forgiveness for having allowed all that she had been through. I understood that she had endured extreme pain, both emotionally and physically, but in her spiritually blind viewpoint, she thought she could punish God. I could only shake my head as I thought of so many others I knew who thought just as she did.

God doesn’t come to us on our terms. He requires us to come to Him on His. He made the universe; we did not. He is the center of all reality; we are not, even though He allows us to delude ourselves into thinking that, for a time. Then at some point, we all come face to face with the fact that we can’t dictate terms to the One who created everything from the spiral galaxy to DNA.

God has nothing to prove. He has already made His reality obvious to us. No one can claim ignorance. Romans 1:18b-20 speaks of people “who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”

Jesus told us how to find God: “…seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” (Matthew 7:7) This is both a command and a guarantee.

God has already done all the work. Every star in the sky, every particle of every atom, every part of the symbiotic natural world He created, is evidence of His existence and His majesty. Now all we have to do is respond and reach out to Him—“God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him….” (Acts 17:27)

www.godpreparedafish.com

Scriptures taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™