John 7:333-34 NKJV "Then Jesus said to them, 'I shall be with you a little while longer, and then I go to Him who sent Me. You will seek Me and not find Me, and where I am you cannot come.'"
Isaiah 55:6 NKJV "Seek the Lord while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near."
Dear Lord,
Thank You for the invitation to seek You. You are a worthy search. For at the end of the search, You are there.
Saint Augustine wrote: "We were made for Thee and we cannot rest until we rest in Thee."
So we search.
In our desperation, we substitute. Like children playing with their first jigsaw puzzle we try to force incompatible pieces to fit together. They don't fit. We fill the void within us with relationships, achievements, work, stuff, sex, alcohol, and drugs. We turn the pieces and pound them ferociously, demanding that they fit and fill the void within. Our desperate frustration bends, warps, and breaks the very pieces of our lives that we are seeking to force together. Sin distorts and destroys even the potential good.
French Philosopher Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) wrote: “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself” (Pensees, p. 75 New York; Penguin Books, 1966).
Imago Dei--Your image in me, crafted in Creation, marred by Adam's sin, obscured by my own, nevertheless lingers. The image glistens with a twinkle of goodness, reminding me of You. Your prevenient grace beckons me forward into Your heart. You call me to seek You, my Creator who knows me best.
William Barclay wrote: "So long as sin still hurts us, and the unattainable good still beckons us, the chance to seek and find is still there. But a man must have a care lest he grow so used to sin that he does not know that he is sinning and neglect God so long that he forgets that He exists. For then the sense of need dies, and if there is no sense of need, we cannot seek, and if we cannot seek, we will never find. The one thing a man must never lose is his sense of sin" (In The Gospel of John, vol. 1, 1955, pp. 258-259).
Lord, bring our puzzling search to an end, until we rest in You.
William Barclay wrote: "So long as sin still hurts us, and the unattainable good still beckons us, the chance to seek and find is still there. But a man must have a care lest he grow so used to sin that he does not know that he is sinning and neglect God so long that he forgets that He exists. For then the sense of need dies, and if there is no sense of need, we cannot seek, and if we cannot seek, we will never find. The one thing a man must never lose is his sense of sin" (In The Gospel of John, vol. 1, 1955, pp. 258-259).
Lord, bring our puzzling search to an end, until we rest in You.
Thank You for making me to know You.
Amen.
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