Rodney Drury: How to Seek the Lord

How to seek the Lord

"But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you search for Him with all your heart and all your soul. "When you are in distress and all these things have come upon you, in the latter days you will return to the LORD your God and listen to His voice. "For the LORD your God is a compassionate God; He will not fail you nor destroy you nor forget the covenant with your fathers which He swore to them.

(Deuteronomy 4:29-31)

How do you seek the Lord? How do you look for God with the goal of getting a hold of Him so that your life changes? Is this seeking the Lord a game, an option or is there more to it?

The Scripture above is a part of a larger passage of Scripture in which God is counseling His people on what to do once they have turned their back on Him and fallen into hard times. God shared with His people, thousands of years ago, what we find so true today, that the blessings of the Lord often allow us to drift away from God. Enjoying the blessings of God can lead to neglecting our relationship with God. Yet it is our relationship, not the blessings, that bring comfort to our souls and peace to our hearts.

When God established the covenant with Abraham in Genesis 12:1 blessings were a part of that covenant or relationship. It appears to be God's plan that everything He relates to is blessed. In turn all that is blessed by God becomes a blessing to others. So many blessings flow from God to and through humanity that it is amazing that we all don't become blind to God and focus only on the blessings. Yet, often in patience, God waits for us to enjoy His blessings and yet long for more. If we use the blessings of God rightly we end up loving God for all He has done for us and yet loving Him more than any gift, pleasure, revelation or position that He may bestow on us.

We seek the Lord is because we both need Him and desire Him. I often use the illustration of driving your car and running low on gas as an illustration of seeking God. You are still busy negotiating traffic, traveling, and driving but your are actively looking for a gas station. You need a gas station, your desire one, you overlook normal attractions and distractions so that you can seek for a gas station. You want to find the gas station and have a need met, your lack filled and be supplied to carry on with the journey. While God is much more than a gas station, even more than a station with food, showers and internet, God uses lack and longing as motivations for relationship.

The wisdom of the above passage calls to us to seek the Lord "from there." The context above is the future vision of God gazing upon His people. He sees that they have moved away from Him. God's call "to return" often starts with the call "to seek." From the place you find yourself, from the location, perspective and situation in which you discovered that you need God, from that place start seeking.

Often people try and move to a better place before they start seeking. When they realize that they need God they enter a season of self-help designed to improve their condition so that God will find them more favorable or "nearer." Rather than immediately start to look for a gas station they decide to travel to a little better neighborhood or to a city at which the price of gas might be lower. In the natural this often leads to being stranded. Who of us hasn't met someone on life's highway that hasn't stalled out, unable to advance because they have not energy or effort.

Our efforts to move closer to God only appear to help. Our pride enjoys the feelings that we can draw near to God via our own works. We trust more in our intentions than in His mercy and grace. Without knowing how far it is to the next station we press on in blind faith, deceived that we can make it when in reality we need Him to make us. Even though we have not traveled on this life highway before we act as though we know where we are, we know some station will be within reach. To avoid this pride and anxiety God calls to us, He instructs us to seek Him from where we are. At the very first station, pull over. Postponing the seeking is the same as not seeking.

"God help me" is a powerful and frequent prayer of seekers. When we pray this prayer perspective shift. The one who was sufficient to run down the highways of life on their own, picking and choosing their own destinations, now seeks help for what they lack. It is a awful and wonderful thing to come to know that we do not have the power in ourselves to get back to God. One of the best life experiences you can have is to be a seeker who finds. Empty and without provision God refills and restores you, giving you direction and purpose for the next stage of your journey.

I have met hundreds of good people who have loaded up their personal vehicle with the "best they have" and set out on life's journey. People loaded down with sound teaching, biblical principles, Godly methods, Spiritual GPS and unlimited talk time fail to connect with the Lord. Like those in the passage above, people who live on the blessings He gives and yet travel away from a personal relationship with Him. I think it happens to us all. the question is, how far will we go before we stop and seek Him?

I truly believe it is practical and wise to seek the Lord from "where you are" and not from "where you want to be" or "where you think you should be." I try and use this principle daily. Rather than living as though I am a godly man living a godly life doing a godly ministry, I try and find a place to pull over every morning and be filled up. It's not as though I can't go a day or two without god holding my hand. It is not as though God must coddle me before I go to work for Him. I just love Him. I love to gaze upon Him. I love to hear His directions, corrections, disciplines and desires. I have worked hard in His grace to overcome independence and my selfish need for self- sufficiency. I want to seek before I am lost, find before I run empty. Here are some disciplines that have helped me.

1. Humility. Try and avoid the feelings of justification or blame. Don't allow pride to trick you into avoiding your personal responsibility for being where you are. Sure others are most likely involved, but don't blame others for your condition. Instead use the prayer and mindset, "Lord have mercy on me a sinner." For me humility leads to greater peace while justification leads to hours and hours of mental wrestling and anxiety.

2. All. The conditions of "all your heart" and "all your soul" are daunting. How do we ever know when we are giving it our all? Rather than determine what "all" is yourself, ask God to coach you. Like the athlete running wind sprints for conditioning, we may feel we are "done" when the coach knows we can do several more. Inviting God to coach you is not a risky decision. By releasing authority over your own life to God you become free to follow. This denying of self to follow God does involve carrying the weight of the cross, but that weigh is shared by being yoked to God. The greater weight of what God requires is lighter than the weight of our own choosing (self-interest) because Jesus is helping lift the burden.

3. Avoid assumptions about what will happen when you find or re-connect with the Lord. The parable of the prodigal son is one story God gave us to help us have confidence in returning to God, but the Bible has other encounters of returning to God. Often we are not ushered into a banquet feast but are in need of authentic repentance, something the prodigal son did while still a long way off. Restoration, forgiveness or other expressions of repentance may be stops we need to make before we enter into celebration. Frequently we are in need of establishing "who God is in our lives" so that our turning to the Lord is not just an escaping from our situation but also a reunion with the Father in heaven. Assumptions are a form of judging God and are expression of our need to control, pride or insecurity. Trust me, assumptions are spiritually deadly.

4. Listen. Seeking involves listening more than talking. Listening is a form of receiving. Listening is also an expression of humility (see #1). Many of us have discovered that as soon as we start to listen, we hear God whispering directions.

5. God is compassionate. The compassion of God is given to us. Compassion is not something we demand. We don't require God to love us, that moves compassion to a duty or obligation. Compassion is an expression of love. But compassion requires us to stay in the place of being loved. In other words, God may be compassionate to you and you will never know it if you are not in a place of experiencing His compassion. John 17 give insight into being in the right position for God's love. Learn to live in a lovable place.