“Are you seeking Him?”

“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.” 

I’m sure most of you know the game, “Hide and Seek.” Participants hide in an area with set boundaries while one counts to a predetermined number (usually 100 and the cheaters counted quickly). After the count, the one who is “it” goes to seek/find those who have hidden.

I grew up in the country and we had some pretty epic games of hide and seek. We hid in a lot of crazy places! (Kids please don’t try these, we were highly trained professionals.) We hid on rooftops, in trees, in a small cave, in the attic of a house, in and underneath parked cars, and many other places that in retrospect would be ill-advised then or now. The seeker would carefully spend time searching high and low, near and far, and anywhere they could think of “seeking” those in hiding.

Jeremiah chapter 29, is a letter written to the Israelites exiled to Babylon. The letter was a letter of purpose, hope, promise, and restoration. God deemed they would be exiled for 70 years, encouraged them to build homes, have children, and pray for the welfare of their current place of residence (even though I’m sure they didn’t want to be there).

But then He tells them in verse 13 “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” This was not a game of hide and seek. God doesn’t play games. There is purpose in everything He does (whether we agree with His plans or not). This was a reminder from God that they were to seek Him with all their heart, and then when their appointed time was up He would keep His promise and bring them back to their promised land.

The awesome thing about each person who has ever lived is that God created each of us to seek Him with all our heart, not just the Israelites. Everyone is seeking something and that something is Him! We can chase material things, fame, wealth, and a million other things in this world, but the ONLY thing worth seeking is a personal relationship with Him. The beautiful thing about God is that although He created us to seek Him, He was already seeking each one of us long before we ever realized it.

If you’re reading this, it means it’s not too late to start, so I challenge you to seek Him with all your heart from here on. You’ll be glad you did, but He’ll be even more glad!

While using the HEAR method (see below) consider the following questions:

• When did you begin seeking God? 
• What does it mean to you that He was seeking you first? 

Highlight – what words or phrases jump out at you? 

Explain – what does the passage mean? 

Apply – how does the passage intersect with your life today? 

Respond – how is God leading you to respond?

Dylan Owens, Leader of Wednesday night Men’s Group