To Seek part 5
Seeking isn't about getting something you don't have. It's isn't about hide and seek, where God hides something and then expects you to do the work to find it. Seeking is about, "I once was lost, but now I'm found." JESUS is the one who came to seek and to save those who were lost. He found us right where we were at, and He revealed Himself to us (and in us, and through us, and as us). So when He told us to seek first the Kingdom, He wasn't telling us to try to get something we don't have. He was showing us how to experience what we DO have. Because it was the Father's good pleasure to GIVE us the Kingdom. The Kingdom that is within us. So if we're going to seek, we need to look inside. We need to fill ourselves with the fulness of God by testing the height, and depth, and length, and breadth of His love for us. Test it by USING it. By loving God--which we do by loving people--bigger and stronger than we ever thought we could. Which we are able to do... because He first loved us. We are able to seek the Kingdom because He gave us the Kingdom. We're not seeking to get. We're seeking to explore what we've got. We are able to love because He first loved us. Because HE came to seek and to save. We weren't looking for God. Or, if we were, we were looking for Him in all the wrong places. Looking for LOVE in all the wrong places. So He came, as the light of the world, in order to help us see. To see God (love) as He really is, and to see ourselves as we really are. We were God's enemies in our minds because of our wicked works. We were hiding from His presence. Running from the very thing we desired, because we didn't believe that He could love us just the way we are. We thought we had to change (from evil to good) before we'd be accepted. But when Jesus shined the light of the world, what He showed us is WE ARE the light of the world! He didn't change us from evil to good. He changed us from dead to alive. We were dead IN our trespasses and sins, and now we are dead TO sin. And alive unto God. Alive unto love. Open to love. Not seeking it (Him) anymore because it (He) found us! One of my favorite verses in Song of Solomon reads like this, "Draw me, we will run after thee: the king hath brought me into his chambers: we will be glad and rejoice in thee, we will remember thy love more than wine: the upright love thee" (Song of Solomon 1:4). And it's one of my favorites because it explains "our" seeking. Draw me... and WE will run after thee. He is the One drawing us, and He is the One running WITH us. Carrying us! He sought us out. One preacher said it like this, "God's a stalker." He never left us nor forsook us. He didn't put the emphasis on us to seek Him out. He gave us the Kingdom then told us how to enjoy it. By seeking it first, and not worrying about all the other stuff we get so caught up in. He drew us. He brought us into His chamber. He did it all, so we could get it all. And now we have it all! We have been saved! (But that's for tommorow's Rant series)