Those Who Seek Him Find Him

An often quoted and well known promise taught in Scripture is that those who seek God find Him. Sometimes the phrase "with all your hearts" is added to the seeking side of the statement.

This Is a Conditional Statement

One of the places we find this promise is found in 2Chronicles 15:2: "If you seek Him, He will be found by you." Now, that is a conditional statement right?: If A, then B (as a logician would put it). If the condition in the "if" clause is met, the result in the "then" will occur. For example, if you drop a bowling ball on your toe, then it will hurt. In this case the "if" clause is about dropping a bowling ball on your toe. If that condition is met, then the result will occur: "it will hurt."

Okay, silly example, but you get the point. In the same way that gravity guarantees the outcome in the conditional statement about the bowling ball and the toe, God guarantees the outcome in the conditional statement about seeking Him; namely, that we would find Him. I trust we would agree with that.

Let's also be clear that God is sometimes found by those who aren't seeking Him at all! One obvious example is Paul on the road to Damascus. Sometimes God may simply surprise us and 'show up' when we're not expecting (looking for) Him at all. These are delightful surprises! And I trust that we understand that when this happens, it does not negate the conditional statement any more than my toe hurting, when a bowling ball was not involved negates that other statement.

As an aside, We have another promise that if we confess, He forgives (1John 1:9). This is a promise. But it does not mean that He only forgives, if we confess, anymore than my toe would only hurt, if I dropped a bowling ball on it! God, in His grace through Jesus, forgives us completely, even of sins we are not aware of, or forget we even committed. Who could ever be sure you didn't miss one! Thank God for His grace! Amen?

So, What Is the Promise?

Let me begin to answer this question, by saying what is not being promised here. We are not promised that if we seek Him, we will find information about Him (though we will). We are not promised that if we seek Him, we will find salvation (though that's likely). We are not promised that if we seek Him, we will find some vague, spiritual experience (as if that would mean something). We are not promised that if we seek Him, we will find an assurance of His love (though we will). We are not promised that if we seek Him, we will find some sort of personal, ethical and spiritual transformation (though that's very probable too).

What we are promised is that if we seek Him, we will find Him. That is, if we seek God, we will find God Himself. We are promised a direct experience and encounter with the living God!

Don't ever believe anyone who tells you that experience isn't important, or doesn't matter in the Christian life. The Bible promises us many experiences, including this one; An experience of God Himself, if we go looking for Him.

We Only Seek What We Expect to Find

I have not spent any time today looking for uranium deposits in the bottom of my shoes. I don't expect to find uranium there, or anywhere around here. It's possible I might find uranium someday, but to find it would require a Geiger-counter, or something like that, since I wouldn't know how to find it any other way.

I did not go looking for gold to fall from the sky in the last rain storm either. Theoretically, it may be possible (if there were a massive volcanic eruption nearby, and other unlikely circumstances conspired together in exactly the right way), but I doubt it. I probably won't go looking after the next rainfall either.

If we don't expect to find God, we won't go looking for Him. If all we expect to find is information about Him (from the Bible, for instance), or salvation, or some vague, spiritual experience, or some assurance of His love, or some sort of ethical and spiritual transformation, that's what we can expect to find. If we somehow believe that it is as likely to find God Himself as it is to find uranium in my shoes, or gold falling from the sky, then we wouldn't consider looking for Him - even if we used the words that suggested that we were seeking Him.

In the same way, if we only believe that we can experience God after we die, or after the Lord returns, we won't look for Him before then, nor expect to find Him while we're still breathing. Is it possible to find God? Is it possible that God Himself could be found by us, if we go looking for Him? Is it possible to find Him before we get to heaven?

Want to know the Bible's answer to that question? The answer is "Yes!" In fact, in 2Chronicles 15:15 we read this about the people of Judah: "They sought God eagerly, and He was found by them." In fact, in the Hebrew language "was found" is in the imperfect tense, meaning that this was not a one-time event. It kept on happening. They kept on finding Him!

Not Like Instant Coffee in the Microwave

One final note about this promise, we are not promised that we will find Him as soon as we begin seeking. In our culture, we don't like to wait. We tap our toes impatiently waiting for the microwave to heat up our instant coffee! We get frustrated at the grocery store, if the line is longer than 3 people. And on and on. We don't like to wait. We want and expect instant answers, instant results.

But seeking is an action that takes time. It is not "glance for Him, and there He'll be" (though sometimes it really can be that easy!). That's not the promise. To seek something or someone is to go searching, like the shepherd for the lost sheep (Luke 15:4), or the woman for the lost coin (Luke 15:8). It takes both time and effort. There is a period of time between beginning to search and finding (usually).

Maybe some give up, or change their theology, because they sought God for a day, a week, or a season, didn't find Him, and concluded He can't be found - at least not in this life. There are those who have searched for lost loved ones for years, and didn't give up and eventually found them. If the promise is sure (and I believe it is), and doesn't require us to reinterpret what it says to fit our experience so far (and I don't believe it does), then one thing we can be sure of: if we keep seeking, we will surely find Him. If it takes minutes, hours, days, or years, if we seek Him, we will find Him.

What Do We Expect to See?

Maybe our Father in heaven does like to play "hide-and-seek" with His children. Sometimes I really think He does. God wants us to find Him in places we haven't thought to look before.

But for those who have never found Him, is that a satisfying answer? Probably not. For those who have not yet found God Himself--had a direct experience of Him--God wants to be found. In this case, we can only find Him, if we take off whatever blinders, or filters we have. If we believe a lie about Who God is, or how He may be found, or what it would be like to find Him, etc., we don't know it's a lie, until the lie is exposed as a lie. Those lies will blind us to what is right in front of us, or filter out those things that would expose the lie as a lie. 

I'm convinced many people don't find God, because they don't see Him when He actually is present. 

I remember driving down a road in the Dominican Republic that I had driven on dozens of times before. But on this day, a tree was in full bloom, with brilliant red flowers. It was a very large tree. I had driven that road many times, but had never noticed something that was always there. One day I didn't see it, the next I did. After I saw it, I wondered how I had ever missed such a large tree - especially because it was in the middle of a field with nothing else around it. Once I saw it, I noticed it every time I drove that road.

In the same way, many people don't see God when He is present, even if they want to, because they aren't looking for Him the way He actually comes. He doesn't always come with brilliant red flowers, like that tree. He sometimes comes in the way Elijah recognized Him: as a gentle as a whisper (1Kings 19:12). He may come with a smile to those who expect Him to be stern. He may come with a laugh for those who expect Him to be angry. He may come with open arms, to those who expect Him to comes with arms folded and toe tapping impatiently. He may come as a dad, to those looking for regal, kingly, awesome, breath-taking brilliance.

If we seek Him, we will find Him, but we may need to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened (Ephesians 1:18) in order to be able to see Him and all He has for us. In our seeking, we should also pray for eyes to see, what we cannot yet see. And we should pray believing that Jesus still opens the eyes of the blind.