The Significance of Seeking God

     To “seek” means to look for or pursue something intensely, without letting anything else distract. If a man loves a woman, he will do everything in his power to win her heart. He will pay her compliments, buy her flowers, and spend time with her. If a man really loves a woman, nothing can dissuade him from pursuing a relationship with her. God wants us to seek Him in the same way. We should want to be close to Him so badly that we pursue a relationship with God with everything we have.

 

     As Christians, we are told that seeking God and making Him the first priority in our lives is important. After all, one of the greatest commandments is to “love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind” (Matthew 22:37). But why is seeking God so important? How do we do it? And furthermore, why should we want to make Him first?

 

     The primary reason seeking God is so important is because God created us for intimacy with Him. In fact, it is our very purpose! (Shankle) Ephesians 1:4 says that God “[in His love]…chose us [actually picked us out for Himself as His own] in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy (consecrated and set apart for Him) and blameless in His sight, even above reproach, before Him in love” (AMPC). Because God chose us, it means He wants to be close to us! John 3:16 also makes this evident: “For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son” (emphasis mine). God was willing to pay the ultimate price to have relationship with us!

 

     God’s love is so vast that He wanted to share it with someone besides the Trinity. So He created us. The Lord made us in His Own image and gave us free will so that we could reciprocate His affections for us. Even though God does not need us, He longs for us (Hill 2). In fact, the whole purpose of Jesus’ dying on the cross was to “buy back” the ability to commune with us (22). Our sins separated us from God, and God didn’t want that separation. Thus, when Jesus died and rose again for our sins, He made a “new and living way” (Heb. 10:20 NASB) for us to have relationship again.

 

     Throughout the Bible, we can see the Lord pursuing His people (Hill 4). God looked for Adam and Eve when they hid from Him after they sinned. He pursued Hagar when she ran away from Sarai after giving birth to Ishmael. The Lord appeared to Saul (later Paul) on the road to Damascus, even though Saul had murdered His Own followers. It is clear that God longs to be with us! Yet, for any relationship to be close, it must be reciprocal. For us to enjoy the soul satisfaction of a deep relationship with God, we must also pursue Him.

 

     How do we become close with certain people? We spend time with them. Similarly, to become close to God, we must spend with Him. We can do this by reading the Bible, praying, and worshiping. As we do, we can ask God to reveal His character and love to us. Then, as we experience God’s love, our love for Him will grow more and more. Brother Lawrence described this experience: “We must concentrate on knowing God; the more we know Him the more we want to know Him. … the deeper and wider our knowledge, the greater will be our love” (“Be”). As we get to know God more and more, we will overflow with praise and gratitude towards Him. When we praise someone, we express how wonderful they are. What we believe about them pours out of our hearts. Similarly, as we praise God, the truth about Who He is and all He has done for us will rise from within our hearts and pour out into our lives. Since God created everything with His words, and we were created in the image of God, so we, too, will create our reality by confessing God’s goodness through praise!

 

     Experiencing God’s goodness should be reason enough to seek Him. He is good and therefore deserves all of our praise. But seeking God is also important because it reveals to us who we truly are.

 

     As I mentioned before, Ephesians 1:4 shows us that God created us for intimacy with Him. Because that is the case, it naturally follows that the only way we can understand our purpose—who we were made to be, what our value is, and what we are supposed to do—is through developing our intimate relationship with God by seeking Him back (“Seeking”).

 

     Colossians 2:10 says that we are “complete through [our] union with Christ.” The only way we can experience this completeness is by experiencing Christ, specifically His love, by spending time with Him. Ephesians 3:19 says, “May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Christ and His love are one and the same, because “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Thus, to experience His love is to experience Christ Himself. And this is what makes us complete. It is what ultimately satisfies our souls.

 

     In my next blog post, I will explain more about how our joy and satisfaction come from being in close relationship with Jesus!

 

 

*Unless otherwise noted, all scripture references are from the New Living Translation.

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

Amplified Bible, Classic Edition. BibleGateway, Accessed 16 Feb. 2024.

 

“Be Still and Know.” Be Still and Know that I Am God Promise Journal. Ellie Claire Gift &

     Paper Expressions.

 

Hill, S. J. Enjoying God: Experiencing Intimacy with the Heavenly Father. Lake Mary, FL,

     Relevant Books, 2001.

 

New American Standard Bible. BibleGateway, Accessed 16 Feb. 2024.

 

New Living Translation. BibleGateway, Accessed 16 Feb. 2024.

 

“Seeking God – Why Is It Important?” Compelling Truth. Got Questions Ministries, 2023,

     https://www.compellingtruth.org/seeking-God.html. Accessed 4 Sept. 2023.

 

Shankle, Larry. “Why Is Seeking God Important?” Medium, 13 Feb. 2017,

     https://medium.com/@LarryShankle/why-is-seeking-god-important-5746673f9523. Accessed

     4 Sept. 2023.