Seeking God (Part 4 of 4)

Why Should We Seek God?

Remember Hebrews 11:6? “…He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.” What are those rewards? In Psalm 63, David says “So I have looked for You…to see Your power and Your glory.” (v. 2) and “because Your lovingkindness is better than life…” (v. 3). Hosea says, “…break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD, till He comes and rains righteousness on you” (10:12). Amos encourages us to “seek the LORD and live…” (5:6). For a believer, our life depends on it.

Satisfaction—In Psalm 63:5, David summed it all up by saying, “My soul shall be satisfied…” The shepherd-king said the same thing in Psalm 23, “…I shall not want.” Rev. Chappell shares a story to illustrate what it’s like to be satisfied with God:

“That was a rather queer and ugly creature that a mother hen hatched along with her brood of normal and respectable chicks. The egg from which it came had been found on the side of a rugged mountain. He seemingly did his best to satisfy himself with the tame, unexciting life of the barnyard. But somehow it did not work. His crooked beak was out of place there, and his great wings seemed utterly useless. So the poor, awkward thing looked on his drab world with lackluster eyes. He did not fit in and was very evidently not at home.

“But one day he heard a wild scream above him. He looked up, and his eyes kindled. He saw a great bird like himself, an eagle. Then he realized what he had been thirsting for all the while. Therefore he spread his burnished brown wings and was away to the freedom of his larger world. He was made for the cloudland and for the crags of the mountains. Therefore he could not be satisfied in the barn yard. No more can we be satisfied with less than God. This is true whether we ever recognize it or not.”

We were
made for the
cloudland
and for the
crags of the
mountains.

Everything We Need—In Yeshua’s Sermon on the Mount, He told us, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’…But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you” (Matt. 6:31, 33). As Christians, we tend to get our seeking priorities out of order. We put our careers and material needs first, thinking we are responsible for them, and then, if we have time, we seek God. Yeshua is saying if we seek Him first, He will provide all we need. He wants us to seek Him for which career we should choose, where He wants us to live, or where He wants us to go to school. If we do, He is sure to take care of all our needs.

How Much of God Do We Want?

Rebecca Brown challenges readers with some hard questions: “How much of God do you want? Do you want just enough to be sure that you will get to heaven when you die, but not enough to inconvenience you or make you uncomfortable?...just how much are you willing for your relationship with God to interfere with your personal private life, goals and dreams? Are you willing for God to do things in your life that you do not want?”

Desiring more of God has a cost. Are we thirsty enough to pay the price? Sadly, Rebecca Brown remarks that “it is the fear of this cost that stops many from progressing.” As Christians, we must be willing to say, as Yeshua did in the Scriptures, “…I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me” (John 5:30b).

God Seeks Us

A relationship like the one that David sought begins with God. It is God who invites us: “…Seek My face…” (Ps. 27:8a). The Scriptures teach us that God is a diligent seeker. Like a loving shepherd, He is not concerned with numbers but will leave the flock to find the one lost and desperate sheep. As it says in the book of Ezekiel: “I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick…” (34:16a).

 

If our hearts lack David’s passion or if we lack the discipline it takes to “progress,” all we have to do is ask God for mercy to help us. His desire is for us. He wants a deeper relationship with us more than we do. This is the same promise that God spoke through the prophet Jeremiah: “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (29:13).

By Charleeda Sprinkle

Assistant Editor

All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

© 2010
Note our new policy:

Bridges for Peace holds the copyright on this material. We encourage pastors, Bible teachers, and lay people to use these articles for preaching and teaching, and we hereby grant permission for a limited number of copies for such educational purposes. However, any other reproduction or transmittal of this material in any form—including reprinting, republishing, recording or use with any information storage and retrieval system—requires written permission from BFP International.


For the full version of this teaching letter please visit www.bridgesforpeace.com or click on the link provided 
__________________________________________________

Bibliography
Brown, Rebecca, and Daniel Yoder. Standing on the Rock: The Powers of God’s Covenants. Clinton, AR: Harvest Warriors
Publishing, 2002.
Chappell, Clovis G. Sermons from the Psalms, 1931. http://www.abcog.org/psa042.htm.
Kolatch, Alfred. The Jewish Book of Why. NYC: Jonathan David Publishers, Inc., 1995.
Murray, Andrew. The Believer’s New Covenant. Bethany House Publishers, 1984.
Steinberg, Milton. Basic Judaism. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Co, 1975.

Seeking God (Part 3 of 4)

When Should We Seek God?

Of course, we have access to God anytime of the day, but hear what the psalms say: “My voice You shall hear in the morning, O LORD…” (Ps. 5:3). “Evening and morning and at noon I will pray and cry aloud…” (Ps. 55:17a). “…Early will I seek You…” (Ps. 63:1). Many Christians struggle to keep a regular prayer time, but observant Jewish people have practiced daily prayer times since Moses’s day.

During the second century AD, after the Second Temple was destroyed, there was a debate between two rabbis as to whether the Jewish people should pray two times a day or three. Traditionally, it was believed that Abraham introduced morning prayer, Isaac afternoon prayer, and Jacob evening prayer. (Some Scriptures that might give clues to this are Genesis 19:27, 24:63, and 32:1–13.) However, synagogue prayer was based on the morning and “evening” (late afternoon) sacrifices (Exod. 29:38–39). Considering the Psalm 55 passage above and the fact that Daniel 6:10 tells us that he prayed three times a day, it was decided that they would pray three times a day.

Paul’s admonition is for Christians to “pray without ceasing” (1 Thess. 5:17), always being in an attitude of prayer. However, based on these Old Testament Scriptures and especially on the fact that―during tabernacle and Temple times―God designed regular, daily worship, we could conclude that His desire is that we seek Him regularly, more than once a day. That takes discipline, but if we desire His company, it should not be a duty, but a joy.

Where Do We Seek God?

The desert—We can seek God anywhere, but where did David especially find him? Psalm 63:1 says, “…my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.” Why is it that so many accounts in the Bible happen in the desert or wilderness?

It was in the desert, where Hagar met God (Gen.16:7); where God trained Moses to be a shepherd for 40 years, and Moses first met God in a burning bush (Exod. 3:1–2); where God made Himself known to Israel over and over for 40 years; where He trained David to be king; where Elijah hid from King Ahab and was fed by the ravens (1 Kings 17), where he fled from Jezebel and God met him on the same mountain as Moses (1 Kings 19); where John the Baptist lived and ministered (Matt.3:1); where Yeshua (Jesus) was tested before He began His ministry (Matt. 4:1); and where God most likely revealed an understanding of the New Covenant to Paul (Gal.1:17).

Do you want to be a great man or woman of God? Then, don’t resist the desert seasons in your life. Unfortunately, it often takes a drought in our lives before we get serious about seeking God. Hosea tells us, “…In their affliction they will earnestly seek Me” (5:15b).

The sanctuary―“So I have looked for You in the sanctuary…” (Ps. 63:2a). “One thing I have desired of the LORD, that will I seek; that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the LORD, and to inquire in His temple. For in the time of trouble He shall hide me in His pavilion; in the secret place of His tabernacle He shall hide me…” (Ps. 27:4–5). Moses and Joshua sought Him there too. David’s desire was not just to meet with God twice a day during the times of sacrifice, but to dwell there. As believers in Yeshua, that is possible; this is what He meant when He encouraged us to abide in Him (John 14:1–11).

Though I have experienced many great worship times with just the Lord and myself in the privacy of my home, or even in my car on a drive home, we are admonished to not forsake ”…the assembling of ourselves together…” (Heb.10:25a). Yeshua said, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them" (Matt.18:20).

David loved the place where God dwelt, and we know the tabernacle and Temple were just earthly replicas of God’s throne room in heaven (Heb. 8:5). The worship we will experience in heaven will be so much more than anything we can experience on earth, but in heaven, it won’t be private worship, but corporate. We will be a part of “…a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb…” (Rev. 7:9).

God desires that we seek Him as a people, not just as an individual. I think the Jewish people are much better at this than we are. When they confess their sins on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement), their prescribed prayers use “we.” They confess and pray as a nation often. This is, no doubt, because God set them aside as a nation. They are following the examples of intercessors like Nehemiah (1:7). In Basic Judaism, Milton Steinberg explains, “Man is not himself only, he is a participant in his community. Hence it is not enough that he shall address God in his solitariness; he must turn to Him in his other aspect as well.” God wants us to seek Him in community and as a community, together, as a body.

By Charleeda Sprinkle

Assistant Editor

All Scripture is taken from The New King James Version unless otherwise noted.

© 2010
Note our new policy:

Bridges for Peace holds the copyright on this material. We encourage pastors, Bible teachers, and lay people to use these articles for preaching and teaching, and we hereby grant permission for a limited number of copies for such educational purposes. However, any other reproduction or transmittal of this material in any form—including reprinting, republishing, recording or use with any information storage and retrieval system—requires written permission from BFP International.


For the full version of this teaching letter please visit www.bridgesforpeace.com or click on the link provided 
__________________________________________________

Bibliography
Brown, Rebecca, and Daniel Yoder. Standing on the Rock: The Powers of God’s Covenants. Clinton, AR: Harvest Warriors
Publishing, 2002.
Chappell, Clovis G. Sermons from the Psalms, 1931. http://www.abcog.org/psa042.htm.
Kolatch, Alfred. The Jewish Book of Why. NYC: Jonathan David Publishers, Inc., 1995.
Murray, Andrew. The Believer’s New Covenant. Bethany House Publishers, 1984.
Steinberg, Milton. Basic Judaism. San Diego: Harcourt Brace & Co, 1975.