The Pursuit of God
When Paul was speaking to the crowd on Mars Hill, in Acts 17, he introduced them to the Unknown God they seem to have missed and evidently knew nothing about. He stepped up and said – in essence – “Let me tell you about him!” He described a God who had no limits, no competition, and no weaknesses. A God who made everything and was everywhere. A God who was too big to be put in a temple, on a mountain, or in a silly statue. He was the God “in whom we live and move and have our very being.”
This is another case of an instance when I’d love to see the expressions on their faces when he finished. Most of them, evidently, were being introduced to the true and living God for the very first time. And I have a suspicion, that after all the superlatives and staggering descriptions of this true God were given, the one quality and characteristic that may have impacted them the most was the fact that God cared about them and wanted to have a relationship with them. Which one of their made-up gods ever wanted that? This God – this Creator God – created everything for the express purpose “that men would seek him and perhaps find him, though he is not far from each one of us.”
We were created to seek God! That is our purpose – our reason to exist! So, when are we going to get around to doing it? I know, you go to church, you read your Bible, and you pray every day – and you’ve been doing it for a lot of years! Good stuff! But…when do you actually seek after God? When do we try to know and understand him better and deepen our love for him? Is it a side benefit of being good and doing what’s right? Does going to church, Bible classes, and doing all kinds of wonderful acts of service somehow automatically cause us to draw close to God? If what we desire is a true relationship, then we have to understand that relationships are built. We must be intentional, purposeful, and consistent. When we pray, it’s not a recitation of spiritual church-speak! It needs to be the same deep sharing and openness that we all must have in our relationship with our spouse, our best friends, and our mentors. When we read the Bible, it must not be an effort to find rules and regulations. It must be more than seeking guidance and direction for our lives. It must be a seeking to know and understand the Author – our Father.
Only when we are intentional and serious about wanting to know our God will we truly fall in love with him and begin thinking of him and crying out to him as Abba Father – our loving Dad.
