25 The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, To the soul who seeks Him.
What are you pursuing today? Making another buck? A good time? Some lofty goal you're working toward like earning enough for retirement? People are in pursuit of something all the time. Good health so they workout. Some chase after the dream of owning their own home. Others chase after owning their own business. Some pursue more education.
How many are relentlessly pursuing God. He is the greatest pursuit of all and yet it appears so very few are searching for Him. Millions call themselves Christians. Many gather to worship weekly. Out of those gatherers how many are on a daily quest to know more of God.
Let me be even more specific. How many pastors are on this quest? I received a very disheartening call from a friend yesterday. He got invited to a retreat with a bunch of pastors even though he is not a pastor. What he told me he experienced over those two days broke his heart and mine. He talked about shallow conversations among the pastors all relating to how big their churches were and what books they had written. In a series of oneupmanship conversations my friend's heart sunk deeper and deeper. There was little to no substantive talk about truth in the inward parts of their souls.
There was no talk about the relentless quest of seeking God. None. Zero. Nata. Zilch. Not at all. Nothing.
Do you also find this troubling? Think about it. These are the ones entrusted to get up to feed the flock from the word of God. They give homiletical sermons with perfect exegesis, hermetical accuracy and rightly divided truth with precise exposition. Yet the pursuit of God is seldom mentioned. The quest to know God in a deeper way not often proclaimed. It certainly is not modeled in many clergy. Even though the truth is preached the soul of the pastor and parishioners often shrivels.
It all reminds me of a revival meeting I preached years ago. After one service the pastor and I went out to eat along with a friend of mine. During our meal I looked at the pastor and asked him how he was doing. I went on to to say I was not asking about his church. I wanted to know how he was personally doing in his walk.
He danced all around that question. I could see him getting uneasy. He did not want to go there. He did not want to talk about deep matters of the soul. I left that meal wondering if that pastor lived with the relentless quest to seek and know God more. He seemed much more content to talk about surface things.
God is good to those who seek Him. What does it really mean to seek Him? It means to chase after Him. It means to follow hard after Him. It also means to desire and crave more of Him. It includes rising eery to seek Him diligently. Ultimately it means to worship Him.
Let's break all that down. First, seeking God means chasing after God. Did you ever play chase as a child? In the game of chase the only object is to tag and catch the others playing. So you ran after those playing wholeheartedly, dogged determined and relentlessly. God wants us to chase after Him with that same intensity. This is a far different cry than rushing through devotions just to get them over to move on with your day. Chasing God is more than jotting down notes and thoughts in a journal. Chasing God is an ambition that you go after Him with all you have. That includes the intellect. You think deeply upon the subject of God and the truth of His word. That includes the heart and affections. You chase after Him to know and love Him more. That includes with the soul, or put another way, with all your passion.
Right along with chasing God is following hard after Him. [Ps 63:8] KJV. To get up day in and day out on a relentless quest to run hard after God. To give Him your undivided attention. To read His word intensely with pen and markers in hand to capture a word in season. It is running hard after God in a dead sprint. Here is the beautiful thing. When you do that God runs hard toward you too. James 4:8 (NKJV)
8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
This relentless quest of seeking God will drive a person to get up early in this pursuit. It will keep people up late at night in this unrelenting quest to know more, learn more and experience more of God. Do you long for that?
We all must come to the place where we recognize and realize the deepest and most intense desires and cravings in us must be for more of God. He alone satisfies what our hungry hearts and thirsty souls long for. [Ps 63:1] [Ps 42:1-2]
Ultimately this quest leads to more intense and sincere worship. That worship does not always take place in a public gathering. Many meaningful worship encounters will happen in private as you seek Him. You will be overcome with praise, adoration and submission to His will. This worship will lead you to lay your life and family down before Him repeatedly.
It is good for us to seek God like that. Or to put it another way, it is beneficial, pleasing and makes a person cheerful to relentlessly seek God like that.
Just two days ago I renewed my quest with greater intensity for 2019 and beyond. It has been satisfying to my soul already. The reward in the pursuit has been worth all the effort. I hope and trust you will discover that for yourselves. Start your relentless pursuit of God today if you have not already done so.
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