Hide and Seek

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!