Always seeking, never finding

“The word is very near you” (Deuteronomy 30:14).

Some people are always searching – but never finding. They look here, there and everywhere … and, then, they start again … and so, the search continues … always searching, never finding. They tell us, “It’s all about the search.”

Jesus tells us something very different. He says, “Seek, and you will find” (Matthew 7:7).

There are two things we need to say about seeking and finding.

First, if you want to find, you need to seek.

Second, if you seek, you should expect to find.

What else does God’s Word teach us about seeking and finding?

“If you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29).

“You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

Is it really all about the search? That’s not what the Word of God teaches us. There is to be seeking and finding – not just seeking, more seeking, endless seeking, always seeking and never finding.

When we are seeking, there’s something else we need to remember – God is searching for us, and he wants to find us.

What does he say to us about how we are to find him?

Are we to look here, there and everywhere; try this, that and the next thing; and, then, repeat the search all over again … ?

What does God’s Word say to us about this endless cycle of search, search, search … and never find?

How does God’s Word describe those who are always searching and never finding – they are “blown here and there by every wind of teaching” (Ephesians 4:14).

How do we get out of the endless cycle of always searching and never finding? – We read the Word of God. We learn from the Word of God. We believe the Word of God. We let the Word of God change our way of thinking and our way of living.

There are plenty of people, in today’s world, who have no time for listening to the Word of God’s Word, learning from the Word of God and living as followers of Christ.

What does the Word of God say about such people?

“The time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear” (2 Timothy 4:3).

“See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ” (Colossians 2:8).

Are we to read the writings of a whole lot of different theologians, philosophers, psychologists, scientists … – and expect them to help us to break out of the endless cycle of always searching and never finding?

To ask the question is to answer it – we’ll be left utterly confused by it all.

The Word of God gives us a timely warning – we must guard against any teaching that leads us away from “the simplicity that is in Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3).

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