Seeking the Lord in Christ Jesus!

“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” – Isaiah 55:6 NIV

All of us should seek God while we are on this earth and while He is near, for He is the starting point where our true identity (Genesis 1:27) will be revealed as God’s children (John 1:12-13). “For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. And those he predestined, he also called; those he called, he also justified; those he justified, he also glorified.” (Romans 8:29-30) This is because the word of God states, ‘“I am the Alpha and the Omega--the beginning and the end," says the Lord God. "I am the one who is, who always was, and who is still to come--the Almighty One.”’ (Revelation 1:8) However, many of us are depending on the power of the Spirit of God to overflow within us to know the Lord and seek Him (2 Peter 1:3-4). This may be true since the word of God proclaims that nobody is able to know the Lord unless the Father has enabled them (John 6:63-65), but we rely on the Holy Spirit too much that we begin to know and seek the Lord only when we have moments of inspiration. The devotionals of Oswald Chambers strongly declares that ‘moments of inspiration’ is only at mountaintop, and we live in valleys. The mountaintop of God is only the empowerment of the Holy Spirit for us to actually live in valleys. Hence, we ought to abide in the Spirit of God (John 14:15-27) to seek Him (2 Peter 1:5-8). The best method to this is reading the word of God daily (2 Timothy 3:16-17). “For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.” (Hebrews 4:12) This is why Psalmist wrote, “Blessed are those whose ways are blameless, who walk according to the law of the LORD. Blessed are those who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart--they do no wrong but follow his ways.” (Psalm 119:1-3)

Blessed is the one who does not walk in step with the wicked or stand in the way that sinners take or sit in the company of mockers, but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers. (Psalm 1:1-3)

In fact, Jesus Christ longs to be with us through the Spirit of God that He is constantly knocking on the door of our hearts to let Him in (Revelation 3:20). Because of this, Jesus Christ says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30) The main reason for this is that He wants to make us the righteousness of God through faith in Him, and this is why Jesus Christ was crucified and resurrected (2 Corinthians 5:21; John 16:7-15) If we are going to open the door of our hearts to let Jesus Christ come into our hearts, then we ought to crucify our worldly nature (Galatians 5:24-25). The main reason for this is that we are not able to serve both the world and God at same time (Matthew 6:24), due to the fact the desires of the flesh are contrary to the desires of the Spirit (Galatians 5:17).

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you. For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world. And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. (1 John 2:15-17)             

But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.

Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:7-14)