Hide and Seek

“You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.”
Jeremiah 29:13 (NIV)

When I was a kid, I used to love to play the game hide-and-go-seek.  When you find the person you were looking for, you win!  It was fun playing that game with my children when they were very young.  Sometimes they would just cover their eyes and say, “Daddy, come find me!”  They thought that if they couldn’t see me, then I would not be able to see them.  Childish, I know, but don’t we play the same game with God?  How often have we made the mistake of thinking that if we couldn’t see Him, He must not be able to see us?

In the book of Jeremiah, God offers man a challenge to seek Him with the assurance that if we did, and we sought Him with all our heart, we would find Him!  That’s a search worth making!  Have you made an honest intellectual search for the truth to see where the facts may lead you about God, or have you settled for assumptions and hearsay because it’s simply more convenient to believe?  To discover the truth, you have to ask questions and seek honest facts.

Before faith can become real, it must be personal. God desires a personal relationship with each individual.  He created you to love you. In addition, asking questions and seeking honest facts leads to wisdom and humility.  Our search acknowledges the fact that we don’t know but are seeking to know the truth about God.  The Bible describes the person who thinks they know it all as a fool.  You don’t know what you don’t know, and what you don’t know could be deadly.  Knowledge is power and enlightens us to the truth. In the Old Testament, God rebuked a stubborn and obstinate people for refusing to learn. In Hosea 4:6 (NCV), He says, “My people will be destroyed, because they have no knowledge. You have refused to learn….” Willful ignorance can have deadly consequences physically and spiritually. On the other hand, think of all the amazing breakthroughs in discovery we have benefited from because someone kept seeking it! 

Furthermore, asking questions and seeking honest facts reflects a healthy view of the God we are seeking.  God is not afraid of our questions, nor is He threatened by them.  He welcomes our questions! If you’re afraid to ask God tough questions, you have an unhealthy view of God.  Just read the book of Job.  Job wasn’t afraid to ask the really hard questions.  In asking, He discovered that knowing God in the end was even greater than knowing the answers. 

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Keep on asking, and you will receive what you ask for. Keep on seeking, and you will find. Keep on knocking, and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened”  (Matthew 7:7-8, NLT). What are you searching for?  Keep seeking.  God promises to reward the honest seeker with the greatest reward – Himself!

The irony of it all is that God is seeking us! Since the fall in Genesis, man is the one who has been hiding.  The Bible says that Jesus came to seek and to save those who were lost.  He came so that we could find God and be found by Him! God always takes the initiative! Our search is simply a response to His love reaching out to find us!  The game ends on a hill called Calvary!

“At the cross, at the cross,
Where I first saw the light,
And the burden of my heart rolled away!
It was there by faith, I received my sight,
And now I am happy all the day!” (Isaac Watts, 1707)‍ ‍

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To read this devotional online or catch up on past ones, visit https://kerryshook.org/blog.

Another important part of your daily devotional is spending time with God in prayer. The Woodlands Church Prayer Board lists prayer requests submitted by our members and provides a way to send them some encouragement by using a button on the page to let them know that you prayed for them. Whether you use the Prayer Board or pray from your heart, the goal is to build the habit of incorporating prayer into your quiet time.

Need prayer yourself? Let us know by submitting a prayer request on the Woodlands Church Prayer Board.