Jesus told of a lost sheep, a lost coin and a lost son in the 15th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. He described the diligent search for each and the joy experienced, as each were recovered. Finding lost items is difficult enough, much less finding something you hadn’t previously possessed.
I like the following brief story of how the Planet Pluto was discovered. It had been there all along, just waiting for someone who would have the determination and persistence to find it.
Persistence paid off for American astronomer Clyde Tombaugh, who discovered the planet Pluto. After astronomers calculated a probable orbit for this “suspected” heavenly body, Tombaugh took up the search in March 1929. Time magazine recorded the investigation: “He examined scores of telescopic photographs each showing tens of thousands of star images in pairs under the dual microscope. It often took three days to scan a single pair. It was exhausting, eye-cracking work—in his own words, ‘brutal, tediousness.’ And it went on for months. Star by star, he examined 20 million images. Then on February 18, 1930, as he was blinking at a pair of photographs in the constellation Gemini, ‘I suddenly came upon the image of Pluto!” It was the most dramatic astronomic discovery in nearly 100 years.
Source: Today in the Word.
In 1948 Minister and Author A.W. Tozer wrote his classic, “The Pursuit of God.” He wonderfully challenged his readers to seek God with passion and faithful dedication! Another author wrote a similar book in 1998 this one was titled, “The God Chasers” by Tommy Tenney. Tenney also encourage those who read his book to, “run hard after God!”
The Lord gave His promise to His people during their time of captivity in Babylon through the Prophet Jeremiah. God expressed His desire to respond to their seeking of him and restore and bless them if they would just pursue Him.
Look at what the Lord told them in the following three verses. For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare[b] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.
Jeremiah 29:11-13, ESV
People tend to turn to God in difficult times and that its good, however, what would happen if people would turn to God first, instead of seeking Him as a last resort. God longs for his creation to turn to him so that He can help, heal and restore them. The scripture in Nehemiah chapter 9 chronicles a time when people had rebelled against God and had become hard hearted against him. Yet God remained ready to pardon their sin and forgive them if only they would turn to him.
Today many people say, I just can’t seem to find God. During Job’s time of prolonged trial he felt that way too. Job was saying if I might paraphrase, “If only I knew where to look for God… I certainly would!” See Job 23:3.
God can seem to be elusive but it is our own misconception that hinders us from discovering God in all of His love and care for each person.
The Apostle Paul addressed a crowd in Athens’s two millennium ago. He observed their desire to know God yet He had remained unknown to them. Paul declared the one true and living God to them as recorded in the following scripture passage.
So Paul, standing before the council, addressed them as follows: “Men of Athens, I notice that you are very religious in every way, for as I was walking along I saw your many shrines. And one of your altars had this inscription on it: ‘To an Unknown God.’ This God, whom you worship without knowing, is the one I’m telling you about.
“He is the God who made the world and everything in it. Since he is Lord of heaven and earth, he doesn’t live in man-made temples, and human hands can’t serve his needs for he has no needs. He himself gives life and breath to everything, and he satisfies every need. From one man he created all the nations throughout the whole earth. He decided beforehand when they should rise and fall, and he determined their boundaries. “His purpose was for the nations to seek after God and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him though he is not far from any one of us. Acts chapter 27, verses 22-27. NLT
Friends, God is most certainly very near to us all. I like to say; He is always just a prayer away. Perhaps this is your time to seek and find Him for yourself.
The writer is the senior pastor of Solid Rock Pentecostal Church of God, 2745 State Route 29 N., Sidney.
