GOD-SEEKING
I
once read the following definition of a fanatic: "A fanatic is a person
who, having lost sight of his goal, redoubles his
effort to get there." The fanatic runs around frantically getting nowhere.
He is a basketball player without a basket, a tennis player without a net, a
golfer without a green. For a Christian to make progress in…learning to please
God, he must have a clear idea of what his goal is… Jesus stated it this way:
"Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things
shall be added to you."
Pleasing God. Christianity Today, v. 34, n. 9.
Seeking
God? We have totally revised corporate worship services to be sensitive to
“seekers.” If worship were to be tailored for seekers, it would be directed
exclusively to believers, for no one except believers ever seeks God (Rom.
3:9-12).
None
Righteous, Tabletalk, April 2004, p. 7, Used by Permission.
In Romans 3,
Paul makes abundantly clear that unconverted people do not seek after God… To
the naked eye it may seem that unbelievers are searching for God or seeking for
the kingdom of God, while they are in fact fleeing from God with all of their
might… People who are unconverted seek the “benefits” that only God can give
them, such as ultimate meaning and purpose in their lives, relief from guilt,
the presence of joy and happiness, and things of this nature. These are
benefits the Christian recognizes can only come through a vital, saving
relationship with Christ.
R.C. Sproul
Good Intentions Gone
Bad, Tabletalk, October 2007, p. 6. Used by Permission of Ligonier Ministries.
If there were
such a thing as a seeker, what would he be seeking? The church growth movement
seems to believe he would be seeking more of the same. In a world consumed with
lighthearted entertainment, we offer up less professional, less entertaining
lighthearted entertainment? Why, I keep wondering, would a “seeker” get up on a
Sunday morning, and travel to some giant box to hear a third rate rock band
preceding a third rate comic giving a third rate “message” that leaves him in
the same state that he arrived in?
R.C. Sproul Jr.
Pragmatic
Principle, Tabletalk, October 2007, p. 59. Used by Permission of Ligonier
Ministries.
We
are programmed for failure if we're looking for ultimate answers in a
non-ultimate realm, a realm that's partial, fragmented, incomplete.
We end up worshiping the creation rather than the Creator. We can do that as
believers. The total answer is a Person, Jesus Christ. It's part of God's
program to make us dissatisfied with what the temporal realm offers, so that we
might seek life in Him.
The Rest of the
Gospel, One Press, 2000, p. 31-32.
Thou
didst seek us when we sought Thee not; didst seek us indeed that we might seek
Thee.
He
who begins by seeking God within himself may end by confusing himself with God.
God
has hidden every precious thing in such a way that it is a reward to the
diligent, a prize to the earnest, but a disappointment to the slothful soul. All
nature is arrayed against the lounger and the idler. The nut is hidden in its
thorny case; the pearl is buried beneath the ocean waves; the gold is
imprisoned in the rocky bosom of the mountains; the gem is found only after you
crush the rock which encloses it; the very soil gives its harvest as a reward
to the laboring farmer. So truth and God must be earnestly sought.
Form
the feeling of our own ignorance, vanity, poverty, infirmity, and – what is
more – depravity and corruption, we recognize that the true light of wisdom,
sound virtue, full abundance of every good, and purity of righteousness rest in
the Lord alone. To this extent we are prompted by our own ills to contemplate
the good things of God; and we cannot seriously aspire to Him before we begin
to become displeased with ourselves… Accordingly, the knowledge of ourselves
not only arouses us to seek God, but also, as it were, leads us by the hand to
find Him.
Institutes, The Knowledge of God.
An
“impersonal God” – well and good. A subjective God of beauty, truth and
goodness, inside our own head – better still. A formless
life-force surging through us, a vast power which we can tap – best of all.
But God Himself, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, perhaps,
approaching an infinite speed, the hunter, king, husband – that is quite
another matter. There comes a moment when the children who have been playing at
burglars hush suddenly: Was that a real footstep in the hall? There comes a
moment when people who have been dabbling in religion (“Man’s search for God!”)
suddenly draw back. Supposing we really found Him? We
never meant it to come to that! Worse still, supposing He had found us?
C.S. Lewis