Deuteronomy 4:29 (ESV) — 29 But from there you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul.

Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord. Seek the Lord! It is a ubiquitous phrase in the Bible. And one wonders, what’s the deal? Why all this attention on seeking Him? Is it ego? Does God have some sort of strange thirst to be pursued? Why is He always calling upon us to seek Him? Why do we need to seek Him? Isn’t He just there? And don’t we just live life “in Him and through Him? Isn’t it enough that I go to Church, sing the songs, enter worship, give my offerings and live the “Christian life?” And the truth is, I can do all of the above without ever actually seeking Him at all.

What is this seeking the Lord anyway?

Seeking the Lord is taking intentional time to be in the presence of God. To be in God’s Word, before Him and separate from all other things, to allow His Word to speak to our souls. To encounter Him in Word informed and driven prayer.

And the simple answer to why Scripture calls us to it so often is this: Scripture calls to us to seek the Lord over and over and over as an accommodation to our fallen state. It is reminding us that if we do not intentionally seek HIm, we will not naturally seek Him. At least not since The Fall. God must be sought because the sin in me is perpetually drawing me to everything else BUT Him. Because I will seek comfort, joy, peace, hope, fulfillment and well being in literally anything and anybody else – when in fact I was designed to find all of this in Him.

The Spirit does not remind us to seek Him all the through the Bible because of some weakness or need in God, but because of our brokenness. Because we will busy ourselves with all sorts of things other than Him – to the detriment of our eternal souls.

Every time you encounter this phrase in Scripture, be reminded that it is God Himself seeking YOU out, that you might have the fullness you were created for. It is His voice calling to you – to find your full and true satisfaction in Him. And I know for myself if I do not do it intentionally and daily – pretty soon I won’t do it at all.

Seek the Lord my friend, seek the Lord.