God Seeks After You
Psalm 100:3 NKJV
Know that the LORD, He is God; It is He who has made us, and not we ourselves; We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.
I’m sure that this concept isn’t new to any Christians. We’ve heard it before: God is a shepherd (Psalm 23:1), we’re sheep. You’ve probably heard this parable as well:
Luke 15:4-7 ESV
4 What man of you, having a hundred sheep, if he has lost one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the open country, and go after the one that is lost, until he finds it?
5 And when he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders, rejoicing.
6 And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and his neighbors, saying to them, Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.
7 Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.
And you might even know some of the details behind such analogies. Sheep are stupid and don’t do anything until their shepherd calls them, they only respond to their shepherd’s voice, they’re helpless against predators by themselves, and so on and so forth.
But I wanted to highlight something that’s very important. This idea is sourced from an excellent book I read called “The Meaning of Prayer” by Harry Emerson Fosdick. His theology outside of the book is a bit liberal but the book really put some fresh views into my prayer life.
Fosdick, in a chapter discussing hindrances and difficulties in prayer, makes the point that just as we are seeking after God, God is seeking after us!
I feel like since this site is all about seeking truth and seeking God and I have placed seeking the Lord as pretty much the cornerstone of my faith, this would be an important thing to address. This passage made me realize that I can put so much effort into seeking that I forget that I’m a sheep! Sheep don’t seek, at least not in a way that gets them anywhere. If they get lost they’ll bleat out for help, maybe wander a bit, but they really have no clue how to get back to where they need to be. It is only because of the desperately worried shepherd seeking for the sheep that the sheep can be found.
And I think we need to remember that. For all of our efforts, we’re just dumb little sheep. Our efforts to seek our master are feeble little bleats that are ultimately so ineffective. We need to simply cry out and simply let our shepherd find us.
See, I’ve been learning that prayer is all about surrender. We surrender our pride when we confess our sins. We surrender our will and submit to God’s. We surrender our efforts and let God find us. We stop resisting God and submit to His authority - that’s the very definition of the word surrender (adding “God” into the definition, of course)!
So, we still encourage you to seek truth. After all, this site would be meaningless if we didn’t say so. But remember that ultimately God is seeking you, and not just for salvation. Every day…every hour He is seeking after you! Open yourself up, surrender, and allow yourself to be found by Him.
Grace and peace,
Brendan
