“Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him
while he is near:” (Isa. 55:6)
We are commanded to seek God with our whole hearts, with our
minds and our soul but sometimes in our seeking Him, it’s as though He has
disappeared completely from our view. One of the modern misconceptions is that
men are not required to seek the Lord; that they are not required to repent,
pray, call upon God, confess, or do anything else besides believe in order to
be saved from sin. The truth is that all these terms are used many times in
Scripture to tell people what they must do to find God. Looking at the next
verse of Isa.55:7 confirms this:
1.
He must forsake his wicked ways.
2. He must
forsake his unrighteous thoughts.
2.
He must return to the Lord.
These things constitute genuine repentance, the kind that
needs not to be repented of (2Cor. 7:9-10).
As long as one continues in his wicked ways and unrighteous thoughts, he is
still in rebellion and sin and is not returning to God with the whole heart. As
much as we try, as much as we pray we can’t seem to connect with Him. Then
enters doubt, anger, fear, and feelings of rejection, but have you ever
considered that it could be your walk, the way you’re carrying yourself before
Him or your attitude or unforgiveness. Below
are just six suggestions that might be the culprit to finding God;
1.
1. When you turned your heart away from Him and
refuse to truly hear
* Psalm 95:7-11 (KJV) “For he is
our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his
hand. To day if ye will hear his voice, Harden not your heart, as in the
provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work. Forty years long was
I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do
err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my
wrath that they should not enter into my rest.”
2. When you mock God and disrespect His
dealings then judgment comes
* Proverbs 1:23-33 (KJV) “Turn
you at my reproof: behold, I will pour out my spirit unto you, I will make
known my words unto you. Because I have called, and ye refused; I have
stretched out my hand, and no man regarded; But ye have set at nought all my
counsel, and would none of my reproof: I also will laugh at your calamity; I
will mock when your fear cometh; When your fear cometh as desolation, and your
destruction cometh as a whirlwind; when distress and anguish cometh upon you.
Then shall they call upon me, but I will not answer; they shall seek me early,
but they shall not find me: For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose
the fear of the LORD: They would
none of my counsel: they despised all my reproof. Therefore shall they eat of
the fruit of their own way, and be filled with their own devices. For the
turning away of the simple shall slay them, and the prosperity of fools shall
destroy them. But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be
quiet from fear of evil.”
3. When you become too proud and stubborn to
humble yourselves under God’s chosen ones
*See Numbers 16 Korah and Dathan’s
rebellion
4. When you neglect to settle all matter with
Him encouraging His judgement to come upon you
*See Acts 5:1-11 Ananias, and Sapphira theif selfishness
5.
When you die in your sins without repentance
* Hebrews 9:27 (KJV) “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the
judgment:”
6. When you blaspheme the Holy Spirit
* Matthew 12:31-32 (KJV) “Wherefore I say unto you, All manner of sin and blasphemy
shall be forgiven unto men: but the blasphemy against the Holy
Ghost shall not be forgiven unto men. And
whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him: but
whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him,
neither in this world, neither in the world to come.”
When one truly believes it means that you do what is
necessary and required by the gospel when desiring to find God:
1. Seek
– “But without faith it is impossible to please him, for he that cometh to God
must believe that he is, and that he is a warder of them that diligently seek
him” (Heb. 11:6).
2. Repent –
“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when
the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
3. Call upon
God – “AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS, THAT WHOSOEVER SHALL CALL ON THE NAME OF
THE LORD SHALL BE SAVED” (Acts 2:21).
4. Confess –
“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 Jn. 1:9).
5. Pray –
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray,
and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from
heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land” (2 Chron. 7:14).
6. Humble
yourself – “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift
you up” (James 4:10).
7. Hear –
“He that hath ears to hear, let him hear” (Mt. 11:15).
8. Obey – “For
the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first
begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?” (1
Peter 4:17).
This is just a few of the ways that we who “Believe” must
conduct our efforts in seeking God. He’s not playing hide and seek, He is
desiring you to find Him, He wants you to seek Him with your whole heart and
mind. God loves us so much and each and
every day that we are awaken whether we are saved or not, He showers His grace
upon each of us. He gives us strength in our bodies to do what we have to do
every day, we have a roof over our heads, clothes on our backs, and food in our
homes, and anything above this is nothing but a blessed gift from our Father.
So do whatever it takes to seek God, keep seeking Him till
you find Him, no matter if it takes the rest of your life. God wants a
relationship with you, He wants to be Lord over all your life, are you willing
to forsake all that the world has to offer and all that He shows you that doesn’t
please Him?
