Seeking and knowing God - that line is almost a paradox. ‘Seeking’ is what you do to find something and ‘knowing’ is what happens once you have found it. Why do I call it a paradox? I have found God but I’m still seeking Him. I have encountered God but do I really know Him? It’s like the encyclopaedia set at my parents place. I have found them, I know where they are, first shelf, bookcase on the right. But do I know the encyclopaedias? Do I know all the knowledge contained within its pages? This may or may not surprise you, but I know exactly where God is just as I know exactly where my parents’ encyclopaedias are. He is everywhere! Think of a place… He is there. He is closer than your mind can conceive and He is farther than your mind can think. He is beyond the stars that are light years away. He’s bigger than the universe we hardly know a thing about. Not only is He the biggest but He is also the smallest. He is inside the nucleus of an atom. God is unlimited in all dimensions. He’s infinite.
Becoming a Christian is like finding the encyclopaedia set. But finding it is of no value unless you are prepared to be active and seek the knowledge within its pages. Seeking is the key to living a progressive Christian life. It’s the way God has designed it to work. Christianity will be the most lifeless thing unless you are prepared to seek. When I question people who are bored with their faith I inevitably discover that they don’t meditate, pray or read too much. They are not into seeking. They are like gold prospectors who are not prepared to dig. How much treasure do you expect they will find with that attitude? If you don’t seek, it’s guaranteed, you won’t find.
‘I can’t get no satisfaction.’ Strangely enough, that song by The Rolling Stones applies to the Christian life. Any seasoned believer who has an active faith will always say things like, ‘I’m not satisfied. I want more of God’. This is not a negative thing as it is used to inspire continuous seeking. How can we ever be satisfied and complete the task anyway? The God we seek to know is infinite! Seeking is an adventure but it will not always be easy. I don’t know about you, but I have found it hard to pray consistently, and reading the Bible many times has been a chore. But despite the difficulties, it is God’s will for us to seek as it keeps our faith active and alive.
Having now understood the importance of seeking, how do we do it? In case you haven’t worked it out, the very word itself implies work and effort - ‘To go in search of; look for. To strive for; to try to get or obtain’. I remember having a conversation with a ‘pre-Christian’ about this topic. He said, ‘How do I seek God? How do I know I’ll find Him? I know you’ve found something real but how will I find it?’ So I said to him, ‘Imagine the field outside the window has a million bucks buried in it, guaranteed. You need that money. Would you just kick over a few stones then walk back inside?’ He replied, ‘No way. I’d look hard. I’d be diggin’ like crazy’. Then I said, ‘And when would you stop?’ To which he replied, ‘When I found it’. That’s how God wants us to seek Him. The Bible talks about it being like buried treasure in a field (Matt 13:44). There is no question as to whether it is there. The guarantee has been made: ‘If you seek you will find’ (Matt.7:7-8). Digging is hard work but when you find the treasure nothing compares with it and what you find lasts forever. Take it from me and millions of others, it is worth it. It is worth all my time and effort. This task, seeking to know God, is my life’s mission.