December 8, 2019

Answering God’s Call to Seek God

When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek”

(Psalm 27:8).

Since God desires us to seek God and is eager to be found by us, we should respond to God’s call with great desire. God having said, “Seek My face,” our fervent answer should always be, “Yes, that is what we long to do. That is what we will do.”

In creating us, God envisioned beings who would “correspond” to God: creatures who would be personal in nature as God is (Genesis 1:27) and who would use their freedom to respond to God’s love positively. When we chose instead to use our freedom rebelliously, our personal link to God was broken. We were alienated from the very Source of our existence. The result is that now, instead of the “fellowship” that could have been enjoyed, there is only “death,” or separation from God.

God, however, was not willing to abandon us to death. It took nothing less than the sacrifice of God’s own Son to do it, but God has made it possible for our sins to be forgiven. This means that the door is open to reconciliation with God. Having been created for fellowship with God, we would have sought God anyway; but if God had not opened the door to reconciliation, our seeking would always have been in vain. As it is, God can now say to us, “Seek My face,” and there is actually the possibility that we may find God! Indeed, God desires for us to do just that. God longs for the fellowship that has been lost, and God will even help us find our way back to God . . . if that is what we desire to do.

But the question of our desire is really the decisive question, is it not? If we don’t desire fellowship with God, then surely we should. Nothing would be more tragic than for us not to see that this is our greatest need (Matthew 23:37-39). But what if we don’t see our need? If our hearts tell us that our desire is less than it should be, what can we do? We can begin by “desiring to desire” God. We can at least make the choice to lay down our rebellion against God. And if our intent is honest, God will surround us with circumstances that will help us to be more open to God.

Tune me, O Lord, into one harmony

With thee, one full responsive vibrant chord;

Unto thy praise, all love and melody,

Tune me, O Lord.

Christina Georgina Rossetti