Do you seek God?

Hide and seek is a pretty standard childhood game. But one that has varying rules and levels of competitiveness, depending on who is playing the game. For instance, a group of kids all close in age will undoubtedly hide and seek to the best of their ability. What kid doesn’t want to win?! But when an older sibling, babysitter or parent plays hide and seek with a younger child, the game looks a bit different. While the youngest always plays to win, older participants normally play to lose. I mean, what parent out there hasn’t said to their child “you go hide and I’ll see if I can find you”, then proceeded to count to whatever that magic number is, but never actually go look for the hiding child? If we are being honest, most would admit that we don’t feel a huge sense of urgency to find our hiding child as long as we know they are safe, we are pretty content to enjoy the quiet, uninterrupted time. 

Have you ever thought about playing hide and seek with God? Not so much the hiding part, although sometimes we do attempt to play that unwinnable game. What I’m talking about here is more of seeking God. When was the last time you sought after God? I mean really went looking for him – like that child you forgot was hiding an hour ago, the one you haven’t seen or heard from since you sent them to hide. You know the feeling; you get just a little bit panicked as you wonder where they could be and how they could have been so quiet for so long. 

I’ll be honest – seeking God with that level of intensity isn’t something I learned to do until later in life, maybe only in the last five or six years. And honestly it is still something I struggle to do on a regular basis. Normally what leads to this urgent seeking are times when I need or want an answer. But day after day – do I seek God with my entire being? Or am I content to be just a little curious and go through the motions to see if God will show up? 

Psalms 63 says in verse 1 “God, you are my God; I eagerly seek you. I thirst for you; my body faints for you in a land that is dry, desolate and without water.” Read those words again, slowly: eagerly seek, thirst, and faint. The kind of searching for and seeking the Psalmist talks about is a desperate kind of looking for someone or something you just can’t find. I like the way the Message Bible paraphrases this verse “God—you’re my God!    I can’t get enough of you! I’ve worked up such hunger and thirst for God,  traveling across dry and weary deserts.” I mean – are you picking up on the words the psalmist is choosing?! Talk about convicting! 

Psalms 42 is another one 42:1-2 “As a deer longs for flowing streams, so I long for you, God.  I thirst for God, the living God. When can I come and appear before God?” Can’t you almost hear desperation in his voice! It begs asking the question again – when was the last time you looked for God with this level of yearning? Have you ever? 

You know when God keeps bringing the same scripture up in different contexts and places you can be sure He is trying to get your attention as if He were saying “Hey Lori, are you listening yet? Are you understanding and hearing what I’ve been trying to tell you?” God has done exactly that with Psalms 63 lately. I cannot tell you how many times these words about seeking God have come up, how many times I’ve found myself turning to this Psalm and reading and rereading these words. You see recently, I have become keenly aware of needing and wanting to seek God, his will and his direction in my life. There are some BIG questions that I want answers to. More than my desire for answers to these questions is a deep desire in my heart to follow God with my ALL. But, you want know what I usually do instead? I pray about my questions a few times and then immediately go off and try to solve the problems all on my own. Many times, having already decided, in my mind, what the answer or direction should be. That means what I’m actually saying when I pray for God’s will to be done is more like– “Hey God, would you just bless my plan? I’m sure you have some good ideas, but I’ve got this one”. Enter sin and conviction! 

Really, why do I behave this way?! Am I the only who does this? Scripture also tells us that “if we seek, we will find” (Matthew 7:7). So why don’t we, why don’t I seek God? Why am I not desperate for God every single day like the Psalmist? The simple answer is-I want my way. 

Boy howdy, how I wish I had a five-step plan that outlined every step in detail about how to change this sinful way of thinking and behaving. But I don’t. What I can do, however, is point you to the One who does have every single answer we need – including the one about why we don’t seek Him on a regular basis. God’s word is full of promises that tell us if we look for Him, we will indeed find Him: Deuteronomy 4:29: “But from there, you will search for the Lord your God, and you will find him when you seek him with all your heart and all your soul”, Jeremiah 29:13 “You will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart:. Matthew 7:8, Luke 11:9-10 and Acts 17:27 all say similar things and these are just a few. It doesn’t take long to see what all these verses have in common-four little words “with all your heart”. The challenge is to figure out what those things in our hearts are that are keeping us from seeking God with our all. The answer to that question will be different for us all because there are so many different things competing for our attention and focus and this God we serve is a jealous God! He desires every single part of us. He calls us to fully submit and lay down our lives, just like He laid down His for us. 

Like I said, I don’t have a five-step plan, all I can do is tell you what has worked for me and challenge you to try some things and figure out what works for you. Several years ago, I began praying the words of Psalms 42:1-2 saying “God, I long to long for you in this way. I long to desire to read and understand your Word more and more, I want to want you more than I do. Will you please help me?” There was no flash of light, no earth shaking answer or miraculous sudden change of heart. But surely and consistently as I prayed those words day after day, God began to open my eyes and increase my understanding of His word. He did begin filling me with a desire for more of Him and His words. My 20 minutes of Bible reading began to evolve into an hour of more intensive Bible study and prayer time. I actually began to schedule in longer periods of alone time where I could just listen to and be with God. I can’t say the same will work for you or that God will answer you in the same way, But I can confidently say – if you earnestly pray and seek Him with your all, you will find Him. 

My prayer and challenge for you is to open God’s word day after day, establish a habit, set up a time and space for just you and God. And then guard that time because the enemy will for sure try to distract you. It’s okay if you don’t have a plan or all the details worked out – just start praying, ask lots of questions and then watch and see how God meets you and begins to answer your questions.