'You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,’ declares the LORD. (Jeremiah 29:13-14)
‘Hide and seek’ has always been a popular children’s game and one that all of us will have played at some point in our lives. You remember how it goes: one child covers their face (with maybe just the teeniest of peeks between fingers!) while the others hide in as difficult places as they can find, in the hope they will not be discovered. After a certain amount of time (normally counted down as quickly as possible!) the search begins; sometimes those hiding are found, and sometimes they aren’t.
Thankfully, God never plays ‘Hide and seek’ with us. Were he to do so, we would never find him for, as one of Job’s friends, put it, ‘the Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power’ (Job 37:23). God knows the best hiding places in the whole universe – places where we would never find him! However, God’s great delight is not in hiding himself, but in revealing himself. He loves to be found, as he has made clear again and again. Moses promised God’s people, ‘But if … you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you look for him with all your heart and with all your soul’ (Deuteronomy 4:29). Paul told the unbelieving, yet searching, people of Athens, that God’s heart is ‘that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him’ (Acts 17:27).
Today, be assured that God is not hiding from you, though the accusations of your own heart or the difficulties of your circumstances may tempt you to feel that perhaps he is. God is not like some sulking child or disappointed friend who thinks, ‘You let me down – so now it’s my turn!’ Any such thoughts that he is like that come from the devil, who is ‘the father of lies’ (John 8:44). Believe God’s promise and reach out to him today – you will find him, for he is truly there to be found.
Those who seek me find me. (Proverbs 8:17)
Copyright © 2017 Martin Manser and Mike Beaumont
