Don't Hide, SEEK!

“Seek the LORD while he may be found, call him while he is near.”  Isaiah 55:6

As a child I loved to play hide and seek with my sisters and friends.  We had a big, old house and a large yard, so there were plenty of spots to hole up.  To be honest, the only part of the game that I liked was the hiding, because seeking took effort.  Often times, the “hiders” would tuck themselves in so tightly that it was almost impossible to find them.  Seeking was frustrating, but finding them was sublime!

While preparing to teach a Bible study, recently, seek was the operative word in this verse from Isaiah. It came as no surprise to me that seek is found at least 368 times in God’s word.  Time and again, God tells us to seek Him.  Why?  As I’ve already stated, the act of seeking is an effort, and effort isn’t usually fun.  So why must we seek Him, wouldn’t it just be easier for everyone involved if we could just meet up someplace for coffee?

The dictionary definition pretty well sums up the action;  Seek: to try to find or discover by searching or questioning:  Aha!  God isn’t hiding behind a door, or in the laundry basket, he needs for us to search and question him, and by so doing discover who he really is.  How can we truly have a relationship with someone we know nothing about?  Oh sure, most of us have hundreds of Face Book “friends”, but how many do you really know?  Meeting a person face to face is a start, but seeking to know about them, cements a friendship.
God wants us to Google him, check his references, whatever it takes, and by so doing,  we’ll forge a personal, intimate relationship with him.  The verse continues by urging us to seek him, and open His door, while he may be found.  A day is coming, and by the looks of the world, coming quickly when that door will be bolted and locked.  Have you ever misplaced something that you needed, and then tore the house up looking for it?  We all have. God isn’t a lost theater ticket, or a set of misplaced keys, and he won’t be found at the bottom of your sock drawer.  But he wants us to seek him with the same diligence we would search for lost items.  Don’t merely “friend” him on Facebook, seek, and find out all you can about Him for yourself.  “Seek the LORD and his strength; seek his presence continually!” Psalm 105:4