HEARTS THAT SEEK GOD

“And you will SEEK ME and find Me, when you search for Me with ALL YOUR HEART” – Jeremiah 29:13

Redemption transforms defiant hearts to HEARTS that SEEK GOD: And you will SEEK ME and find Me, when you search for Me with ALL YOUR HEART” (Jer.29:13). To seek the Lord is to seek His Presence or His Face. To be before God’s Face is to be in His Presence! In a sense, God’s children are always in His Presence. God is omnipresent and always near everything and everyone. His power is ever-present in sustaining and governing all things. In addition, God is always present with His children through His covenant commitment to always stand by us, work for us and turn everything for our good. Jesus says: “Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matt.28:20). However, there is a sense, in which God’s Presence is not with us always; hence, the repeated calls in the Scriptures, for us to “Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face continually” (Psa.105:4).

God’s manifest, conscious, trusted Presence is not the constant experience of all Believers in Christ. There are seasons when we are negligent in our consciousness of God, when we give Him no thought, do not put trust in Him and we find Him “un-manifested” –  that is, unperceived as great, beautiful, and valuable by the eyes of our hearts. God’s Face – the brightness of His personal character — is hidden behind the curtain of our carnal desires. This condition is always ready to overtake us; hence the need for us to “seek His presence continually.” God calls us to enjoy continual consciousness of His supreme greatness, beauty, and worth.

This continual consciousness happens through continual “seeking” Practically, the Old and New Testaments describe seeking God’s heart as “setting of the mind and heart” on God. It is the conscious fixing or focusing of our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on God: “Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God” (1Chr.22:19). Colossians 3: 1-2 says, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth.” This setting of the mind is a conscious choice to direct the heart toward God. Paul prayed this prayer for the church: “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ” (2The.3:5).

Seeking God is not like searching for a lost document such as a coin or a sheep. God is often hidden or veiled. He calls us to enjoy continual consciousness of His supreme greatness, beauty, and worth! The heavens are telling the glory of God. He reveals Himself in His Word. We can seek Him through that. He shows Himself to us in the evidences of grace in other people. The seeking is the conscious effort to get through the natural means to God Himself – to constantly set our minds toward God in all our experiences, to direct our minds and hearts toward Him through the means of His revelation. This is what seeking God means.

As we direct our hearts Godward in all our experiences, we cry out to Him: “Seek the Lord while He may be found; call upon Him while He is near” (Isa.55:6). The great promise to those who seek the Lord is that He will be found: “If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever” (1Chr.28:9). When He is found, there is great reward (Heb.11:6). God Himself is our greatest Reward. To find Him is to have everything. Beloved, are you seeking the Lord with ALL YOUR HEART?