Becoming a seeker

For many years, Christians have used the term ‘seeker’ to mean someone new to the gospel or someone not yet committed to Christ. However, I would call them an ‘enquirer’, rather than a seeker. In the gospel of Matthew, Jesus is telling us all to be seekers. The Father is seeking for sons. He is seeking for us, just as He is asking us to seek Him. We can have confidence in His promise that if we ask of Him, we will receive. ‘Ask and you shall receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you.’ Matt 7:7.

The prophet Daniel is a model for us, showing us how to wait on God and seek. Even when he was putting himself at great risk, Daniel knelt in his chamber, gave thanks and prayed three times a day.
Dan 6:11. As the wise man said, ‘Blessed is the man who listens to Me, watching daily at My gates, waiting at My door posts.’
Prov 8:34. We need to wait daily at His gates, and draw near into the secret place of prayer. Matt 6:6. There is a secret of the Lord in the secret place. It is both a secret place and the place of the secret. And He wants to reveal it to you.

If you happen to ‘ask amiss’, be open for Him to adjust you. He may say to you, ‘Well done for asking but, you’re not asking the right way’. Or He may say, ‘You are not asking the right question’. When we were children, there were probably many instances when we didn’t ask our parents the right way. Likewise, with our own children, we may say to them, ‘Don’t talk like that’. We mean, ‘Don’t ask like that, because that won’t get you very far’. While seeking God in prayer it is important to ask, and to ask properly. When you ‘ask amiss’, it doesn’t always mean you have asked for the wrong thing. It may be that you’re asking the wrong way, or with the wrong tone and attitude. This was a problem for the children of Israel in the wilderness. They ‘asked amiss’ by grumbling and complaining to Moses, and the Lord addressed them on this. Nevertheless, He still knew their needs. He answered them by bringing quail and manna, the bread from heaven.

We read in the book of Hosea that it is time to seek the Lord. ‘Sow to yourself in righteousness, reap in mercy, break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord until He comes to rain righteousness on you.’ Hosea 10:12. And further to this, we read in the Psalms, ‘The Lord has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there is any who understand, who seek after God’. Psa 14:2. What a wonderful consolation that the Lord looks down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there are any who understand and seek Him. You need to be a seeker, and seek Him while He may be found.

Sue Falk

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Feature Articles
August 2008

Keeping your heart

Bearing His reproach

The staff of bread

The harmony of life

Honouring fatherhood

Elders and Deacons

Showing Virtue in tragedy

Becoming a seeker

The Goodness of God

The devotion of your youth

Increase by labour