Seeking God

As we come to the end of our passage for this week, I want to encourage you to remember God's ultimate goal for the exiled people of Judah, and how this might remind us all of God's ultimate goal for you and me. God's purposes for those in captivity were varied, from reminding them of His faithfulness to keep His promises, to teaching them to be obedient in uncomfortable circumstances, to seeking the welfare of others and intentionally thrive no matter where they may find themselves.

All those lessons would coincide with the people's obedience to passionately seek the Lord through prayer and intentional devotion and commitment to their relationship with the Lord. Only then would God be found by the people. You see, our relationship with God is NOT a giant game of hide-and-go-seek. Its' not like we close our eyes for 30 seconds, and God then secretly goes to hide and its our job to find him again. Rather, we stop seeing God when we give into the distractions and deceptions of the enemy who clouds our minds with emotions and fleshly desires. For it is often our fickle emotions and fleshly desires that lead us away from the will of God and straight into His sovereign discipline.

The nation of Judah was exiled to a foreign land because of their refusal to turn away from their idolatrous and self-centered ways and turn back to God. So God had to go to extreme lengths to get their attention in order for them to repent of their sinful ways. Sometimes, He needs to do the same with you and me. Sometimes, He uses disease and disaster to get our attention. Sometimes He allows our bad decisions to play out in order that we reconsider our ways. Sometimes He leads us into times of loneliness and heartache so that we can learn a great lesson about who God is and how we are to relate to Him.

But remember, the child of God is never to despair, for when we finally find God by seeking Him with all our hearts, we can experience the restoration of our relationship with Him, which will lead to future blessings that abound. For the people of Judah, that meant a restoration of their material wealth, relational reconciliation, and a return to their promised homeland. For you and me, restoration in this life can be found in a variety of ways. However, we do not put our hope in this life or in this world, but in the life and the world to come.

Advent reminds us to seek the Lord with all our hearts, not to experience temporal blessing, but to give us proper perspective and to prepare us for a future glory. Remember what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 4:16-18, "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

Fix your eyes on Jesus and keep seeking after him this Advent season!