O God You are my God; I shall seek You earnestly; my soul thirsts for You, my flesh yearns for You in a dry and weary land where there is no water. [Ps 63:1]
Yesterday we looked into the truth that God is our Boss and Master. Today we look at the same verse with a different twist. Today we focus on seeking God earnestly and thirsting for Him. Right from the start we must answer the questions of what it means to seek God earnestly and to ask ourselves if we are doing that? Do we even want to do that?
The word seek in this passage means to relentlessly pursue. We are tempted to relentlessly pursue all sorts of things. Romantic love and marriage. Building wealth and preparing for retirement. Educational excellence. We relentlessly pursue advancing in our careers. Some relentlessly pursue owning their own home. People relentlessly pursue the realization of a dream. Athletes relentlessly pursue success on the field or court. We are not strangers to the idea of relentlessly pursuing what we want.
Do we give that same energy, passion, zeal, and focus to pursing God? To painstakingly search for Him day in and day out. To plunge deeper into knowing Him. To take the journey of intimacy into the interior of the heart and mind of God. As sad as it may be, the truth is many find the pursuit of God boring. Not worth the investment of their time. The end result is pews filled with people who worship and study about a God they do not know, do not understand, are lukewarm in affections toward, and are not close to in relationship. Religious obligations are kept, but the mind and heart are not fired with the wonder of the God in the Bible. This has created an apathetic, loveless, powerless, irreverent, hypocritical, lackluster, uncommitted group of church members but relentless pursuers of God.
Let me put it this way. God is like a mountain. He invites us to climb higher on Him to reach His summit. To explore, discover, learn, investigate, study, worship, and experience more of Him. We can climb all our days, relentlessly pursue scaling the summit of God, and we will NEVER reach the top. The massive mountain of God is filled with wonderful, astonishing, mesmerizing, grandiose, bewildering, and fascinating truths of His character. THERE WILL ALWAYS BE MORE OF GOD TO DISCOVER. You can take any character trait of God and meditate on that one-character trait and be humbled by the vastness of God.
Take His love. A most perfect and pure love ever known. Not a conditional love. Not a love that can be earned and deserved. An enduring love. A sacrificial love. A patient love. A love that motivated and modeled servanthood. A love proven on the cross. A forgiving love. I am just getting started. I have not even brought up the fact that His love brings blessings. Like getting to enjoy creation. Like colors, plants, trees, skies, oceans, prairies, rolling hills, mountains, caves, forests, lakes, and animals. All created out of love for us to enjoy and remind us of our loving Creator.
We have not even talked about God's grace, mercy, justice, omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, patience, wisdom, creative genius, intelligent designing, wrath, judgment, lovingkindness, sovereignty and so much more. He is greater than we know. Infinitely greater than we know.
Many do not relentlessly pursue climbing higher on the mountain of God. Climbing higher takes great effort, time, and involves adventure. It is safer and easier to remain at the base camp of knowing about God rather than relentlessly pursuing knowing Him by climbing higher. The more we get to know God the more we will learn what He requires of us. The more we will be convicted of things that do not please Him. The more He will require of us. The more He reveal to us to obey. That is a price few are willing to pay.
Do we really want to seek God earnestly? It will cost more than some may be willing to pay. Like prayer. I have met many who confess they struggle in the area of prayer. They admit to praying consistently about fifteen minutes a day. You will not climb very high that way. It will take prolonged time alone with the God of this universe to get to know Him. When I say prayer, I am not talking about just petitioning Him for more and more. What about sitting with Him lost in private worship? Consider the times He wants our undivided attention to reveal truth to us. Contemplate the deep-seated thirst He creates in us to know Him. To draw nearer to Him. To climb higher to get a more intimate view of Him. That often requires much more than a quarter of an hour. In those times, time becomes irrelevant as you continue the climb with eyes focused on getting to the summit. It is the most glorious pursuit.
God has never been fully discovered. There are many who have devoted their lives to climbing higher with God. One of the things that meant is they forsook the company of people to keep company with God. They learned the value of solitude on their climb. They found themselves increasingly out of step with the world they lived in as they devoted much of their time to the pursuit of the eternal God. The world lost its allure for such climbers. They scaled higher than we have ever dreamed and experienced more of God than we can fathom. The more they experienced the hungrier they became to climb higher and learn more. From their lofty view, they learned more than most that we live in a dry and weary land where there is no water. To put that another way they learned that nothing on this earth can ultimately satisfy the deepest cravings and thirsts of our souls. That is a void only God can fill. They learned that God is the only being that can satisfy the thirsts of the soul.
What about us? Will we expend the rest of our days satisfied to mindlessly go through half-hearted devotions, sit in studies uninterested, lose the wonder of worship, and remain with feet on the ground at base camp rather than climbing higher on God? The adventure could begin today for all who embrace the relentless pursuit of knowing God and scaling His summit.
- How would you characterize your earnestly seeking God?
- Pinpoint where on the mountain of God you are presently? Base camp? Just beginning the climb? Higher than you have ever been? Eager to climb higher?
- List the things you have relentlessly pursued in life. Where does the relentless pursuit of God fall on that list?
- Will you devote your life to the relentless pursuit of God?
- Spend some time meditating and praying through one attribute of God to the fullest extent you are able.
