I love those who love Me, and those who seek Me find Me.
Proverbs 8:17 (NIV)
Series: Games People Play
“Mimi, I spy with my little eye something black.” My great-granddaughter Adelaide eagerly throws out her challenge. In a room full of objects and colors, this game can take a little time to find what she has determined is the very thing that will trick Mimi. But we are going down the road in our Buick, sporting black leather interior, black dash, black console, and black carpeting. She usually has to tell me what she has pinpointed because I never quite get the exact thing she has picked out. It is beyond her comprehension as a four-year-old why this game being played in the car is no fun for me.
When I play this in a large room with a group of first, second, and third graders on youth night at church, it’s another story. This competitive crew excels at stumping me every time. They have the uncanny ability to find the tiniest particle in a huge area, causing me to be extra observant, peering into every nook and cranny, searching from ceiling to floor, looking for that one chosen thing. I take great delight in finding that one thing—the thing that makes me the winner.
In Jeremiah 29:13-14a (NIV) the Lord says:
“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found of you, declares the Lord,…”
This sounds like His version of “I Spy”. What does He want us to find? Where should we look? How do we find what He has for us? Of course, our minds should immediately go to His Word. The Gospel of Luke tells us the story of a woman named Anna. She was an elderly widow woman, a prophetess, a woman chosen to speak for God. She willingly spent her days and nights in the temple worshipping, fasting, and praying. She was there daily, seeking God and waiting with expectancy for the coming of the Promised One.
In my mind’s eye, I see her immersed in God’s Presence, listening to the teachings in the temple, sitting quietly, contemplating the things of God and His faithfulness to His people. I imagine her talking with other women about how God had always been unwavering, doing those things He promised. Then one day, Mary and Joseph brought the child Jesus to be presented at the temple. Anna immediately recognized Him as the One she had been waiting for all those years. And there, after years of longing and searching, she thanked God for this amazing Gift she had been expecting for so long.
Looking at the definition of the verb “seek” helps us understand how Anna found Him. To seek means to have a desire to obtain something, to attempt to acquire or gain, to locate or discover, to go towards something. By her faithfulness in worship and temple attendance, she shows us a deep desire to know Him intimately. How do we find Him? We are blessed to have so many things that were not available to Anna. We have the resurrected Jesus as our Savior. We have the infallible written Word of God. We have the Holy Spirit living within us. In fact, our ability to find Him is only limited by our personal desire to know Him.
What did Anna gain by seeking God and what He had for her? She found Jesus, her Savior, her Redeemer, her Promised One. In Luke 2:38, we read:
“And at that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak about Him to all those who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.”
Are you seeking? Are you using all the tools you have been given to find Him? Are you, like Anna, worshipping Him day and night? Are you praying always? Are you approaching every day with an expectation of something glorious He has promised? Are you seeking Him with your whole heart?
In I Spy with my Adelaide, I can’t always find what she has on her little mind. Unlike the game, that may leave us guessing, God says if we seek Him, we will find Him. Let’s hold on to these scriptures and remember His promise is true:
But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. (Deuteronomy 4:29 NIV)
My heart says of you, “Seek His face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek. (Psalm 27:8 NIV)
Holding Fast to Hope,
Debby
Scripture References: Proverbs 8:17; Jeremiah 29:13-14, Luke 2:38; Deuteronomy 4:29; Psalm 27:8
