To Encourage You

Romans 3:11 “. . . no one understands; no one seeks for God.”

Do you see yourself as a seeker, i.e., a seeker after God?  You’re not a Christian, mind you, but you’re seeking.  You really want to find God, if there is a God, that is.  Well according to this verse, which is from God, there is absolutely no one on the face of the earth who ever sought for God before they were a Christian.  That seems pretty shocking, but that’s what God says in His Word, and He, if anyone, knows the truth about this.  The fact is that it is Jesus who came to seek and to save those who were lost, not the other way around (Luke 19:10).

People may be seeking for the benefits that come from knowing God; things like peace, joy, freedom from guilt, purpose for living, and freedom from the fear of death, but unless God seeks them first, they will never seek Him.  You see, we love Him only because He first loved us (1 John 4:10).  We are all like Paul before he became a believer, enemies of God in our natural condition. We want anything but God. We want no part of Him.  It is only when He intervenes in our life in some way, perhaps in a very unexpected way, that we finally come to grips with the fact that we need Him more than anything, and we understand that He loved us despite the fact that we were sinners and totally unworthy to be loved by Him.  There is no other way.  Only the sick need a physician, as Jesus told the religious Pharisees (i.e., the so-called “God-seekers” of their day) (Matthew 9:12).  The very fact that they thought they were righteous and godly and had no need whatsoever of Jesus was evidence of how spiritually sick they were. 

There is a so-called “seeker-sensitive” movement in many of today’s churches.  They work hard to make their places of worship as inviting to non-Christians as possible.  Nice buildings, music that’s very similar to the non-Christian music they listen to, food, drama -whatever it takes to entice someone who is not a Christian to come inside the walls of their church.  And sometimes that works, i.e., someone who is enticed by nice things actually meets the Lord when they actually didn’t expect to.  However, the usual way most people find Christ is through the process of someone (or multiple people) that go to them and share the gospel, perhaps when they really had no interest in hearing it.  Belief often comes only after multiple times of rejecting the very message that gives life.  It is only because of the wonderful grace of a loving God who sent Christ to die for us while we were yet sinners, and then pursued us with the saving message of the gospel when we had no interest in it, that any of us have found forgiveness. 

One of the most well-known hymns of the faith is Amazing Grace.  In it, John Newton, who was once the captain of a slave ship, confessed “I once was lost but now I’m found, was blind but now I see.”  If you are a Christian, you understand very well what this means, for you know that the God Who died for sinners came looking for you.  If you aren’t, may God surprise you too someday and open your eyes to the gospel.  And may that day be very soon.