by Brother Guy Ames
You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.
(Jeremiah 29:13)
I did a brief search as to how many times does “seeking God” show up in the Bible. God’s Word calls on us to seek God, search for deeper faith, and look wholeheartedly for God’s word hundreds of times. This is the grand theme of the Bible declaring that God loves the world so much that He continually calls us into a relationship of faith and life of surrender to Him.
The story behind these words of Jeremiah come from the tragic days of exile from Jerusalem to Babylon. Israel had failed to live as God’s people; their leaders chased after wealth, power, pleasures, etc. rather than obeying God’s commandments. God withdrew his protective hand, and Israel’s elite and skilled workers became captives. Chapter 29 is God’s letter to those exiles telling them to live faithfully and maintain His commandments even in that foreign land. He promises that even in that foreign land God will meet them if they seek him wholeheartedly.
There is no greater spiritual principle than this: to live life of continual seeking to know and love God. Much like those in exile, occasionally we enter an extended dry season of the soul in which fellowship with God seems like a distant memory. We can be easily discouraged and distracted during prayer. Longing to recover the sweet fellowship of our earlier Christian life, we relate to David’s cry, “Restore to me the joy of your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (Psalm 51:12).
How do we seek? Much like a miner who seeks precious metal or jewels digs, searches, pans, and works night and day, day after day, week after week, even into exhaustion, and after many days of an empty search finally discovers the jewel of great price. Much like Jesus’ parable of the man who discovered a vast treasure lying in a field, he sold everything he owned to buy that field. The question isn’t simply “how do we seek” but instead, “what are you willing to give up and surrender to find this treasure?”
There’s no simple or short-cut method for growing deeper with God. Instead at the heart of this is a wholehearted desire to fellowship with Christ, and the willingness to devote sincere and prayer-centered search for God’s presence. Many can attest to the amazing gift of (quiet) time and a focus on surrender during our days in Christian Ashram. Laying aside every other distraction and devoting ourselves toward seeking God opened the door of thousands of hearts to the Living God. “When you seek me, you will find me,” says the Lord.
Father John Powell shared about a student in his religion class at Chicago Loyola University who admitted he still wasn’t sure about God. Nonplused, Father Powell surprised him by saying he wasn’t concerned about him finding God, but that one day God would find him. Years passed and the student returned for a visit, reminding him of their last conversation. He shared that a terminal cancer diagnosis sent him seeking God only to discover that everything he tried only brought failure, so he gave up his search. Deciding to live his last days in serving and loving others he began with his own family, telling each one of his love. Finally, he told his father he loved him. Not having really talked for years, the ice between them broke and floodgates of tears fell as they talked all night long for the first time since he was a little boy. Then he said, “And then I turned around and God was there.”
For many of us this is so true – The secret isn’t in merely seeking, but when we lay aside everything else and search with all our heart, God meets us in that place. When we stopped making the search all about us, we discover that God has been waiting for us all along.
