Isaiah 55:6 – Seek the Lord while He may
be found, call upon Him while He
is near.
We are commanded to seek the Lord. In other words, we have a part to
play in it, and, so, we must be intentional about seeking the Lord. To seek
something implies that it is not obvious and apparent; you must go looking for
it. When our granddaughter wants to play hide and seek, I do not remain
directly in front of her when she opens her eyes. No! I hide so that she must
seek, and the process of seeking is all part of the fun. This is kind of an
interesting analogy because God declares in another place of Scripture that He
is a God that hides Himself. Why does He hide? One reason might be that he
knows that we need to experience the process of discovery and the joy of
finding Him. He doesn’t hide from us; He hides for us; like I do for my granddaughter.
The original word underneath our word translated seek means to tread a
path. As we develop a consistent and regular devotional time, we trample down
the weeds, and kick aside the rocks, creating a well-worn pathway to Him. We
must seek Him in prayer, that is, talk to Him and listen to Him. We must seek
Him through the Word, that is, read slowly and think deeply about what He says.
Seek Him, not just His answers. Seek Him, not just His blessings. Seek Him and
get to know Him who has all the answers and all the blessings we will ever need.
Why does he say to seek the Lord while He may be found? It is because,
though He always wants to be found, there may be something in us that is open
right now, at this present moment, but may not be open later. Seek Him now
because you are thinking about it now, don’t put it off. Isn’t it strange how
we can forget important things? Our spouse may ask us to do something and we
say, okay, but then we get busy with something else and forget all about it.
When we finally remember, they may have already done it themselves and we miss
out on the blessing. Seek God when you think about Him. Do it right away, don’t
procrastinate because as someone has said, ‘Procrastination is opportunity’s
natural assassin’. Procrastination kills creative ideas and desires. It murders
initiative and motivation.
We are to call upon God while He is near. Again, we know that God is not
the one who is distancing Himself. We might have a close friend that lives
nearby with whom we regularly enjoy times of laughter and companionship. A busy
season might come into our life and time slips by, and we don’t return calls,
we don’t take time to text, we don’t get together and so, we begin to sense some
distance between us. That person may even live right next door, they were near
all along, but we were the one that changed and created the break in our
communication. God is always near, just as oxygen is always near and the time
to seek Him is now because, like that oxygen, we need Him now. We need air now.
We cannot procrastinate or put off breathing. To inhale air is vital to our
life and following God is so much more vital than the air I breathe.
Those who are serious mountain climbers tell us that if they want to
climb any of the taller mountains of the Earth, they will have to spend time in
altitude training. This training at a higher altitude climatizes the body to
the lower levels of oxygen which exist at that height. A person, no matter what
shape they are in, cannot simply decide to climb a high mountain without first
preparing their body for the shock. One day we will breathe our last breath and
will depart out of this body and rise into the rarefied atmosphere of His
presence. Wise people will begin training for that moment right now. Seek Him
now. Train now. Prepare yourself now. Call upon Him now, for He is as close as
the air you breathe!
