SEEK and You Shall Find!

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8

When it comes to Asking from the Lord, I think most people know how to do this. God encourages us to come to Him, and make our petitions known to Him so that He can move across our hearts and our circumstances and be God in the midst of our need, our confusion, our shortcomings, and our burdens. Jesus is speaking in our passage today to the multitudes on the grassy hillsides overlooking the Galilean Sea. They came to hear Him speak and were encouraged by His Words. The next portion of our Matthew 7:7-8 passage is where I want to focus our attention today: “seek and ye shall find” – I ask you: what IS seeking? The Wise men in Matthew 2:1-16 came seeking the newborn King that had been foretold through the ancient prophets of Israel, they had traveled a long and difficult way, but they were compelled to continue until they found what they were seeking after. What does it mean to seek until you find, and WHAT are we supposed to be seeking? God’s Word teaches us to earnestly seek after:

1. Seek after God / the Lord (Acts 15:17, 17:27)
2. Seek first the Kingdom (Matthew 6:33)
3. Seek God's will (John 5:30)
4. Seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10)
5. Seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10)
6. Spiritual gifts (1 Corinthians 14;1,2,12)
7. The things above (Colossians 3:1)
8. To lead a quiet, productive and useful life (1 Thessalonians 4:11)
9. Peace (1 Peter 3;11, Hebrews 12:14)

As you can see from these examples, we are instructed to seek godly things not worldly things. We are not to seek after things to feed our own lusts and desires and there are no scriptures that I can find that teach us to seek after temporary things such as money, popularity, power or fame. If we do seek good and godly things then we will find them. If we seek after the Lord, He will be found, if we seek eternal life, we will have it, if we seek spiritual gifts and keep on seeking them, they will be found, if we seek intimacy with our amazing powerful awesome God, we will find it with our soul, that place deep inside you where you and God commune.

If you think about it, seeking takes a lot longer than asking. Seeking requires effort. If you are going to seek and save the lost your seeking may lead you to Africa or China or your neighbor’s house next door or your friend at school who sits alone at lunchtime. If you are seeking to become a Pastor, your seeking may take you to Bible college for a few years to learn and then an internship before releasing you to become a Pastor of a church. It is a journey to SEEK, and God says that when we seek on a Godly mission, we WILL FIND!

The verb for SEEK is present tense which suggests a sense of continual action - to seek and keep on seeking. When Jesus says “every one who seeks finds...” implies “if you do not give up”. Some things we seek may take twenty years or more to come true (as our reference to Abraham yesterday). Yet other things may be answered instantly. Seeking changes us as we move towards the godly goal. We find not just the goal we seek, but we find ourselves in the process. For instance if you go and seek and save the lost you start to find out things about who you are, and how you communicate and how you react to stress and disappointment and to people who do not want to hear the gospel. Eventually mastering the task of sharing your faith makes you a far better person. Just like training for a marathon, the end result may be you have achieved your goal and crossed that finish line and received your medal, but you are a stronger, more determined and disciplined person in the process. In seeking the godly goal we also end up seeking God and finding our truest selves.

Let the Lord move upon your heart today to SEEK and keep on SEEKING Him and the things of God in your life. When you find them, they are like pearls of great price, a treasure to celebrate in the glory of God’s love and grace.

Wise Men Still Seek Him,

Sister, Lahoma

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