To seek something is an attempt to find that thing. It is to search, hunt, look around or about for something. The word “seek” implies that something is lost or not at our disposal. We don’t have what we seek which informs the need to find it.

Matthew 7:8 says, “…the one who seeks finds…”

Juxtaposing the definition of seek with the topic at hand, seek the Lord, one is poised to ask, Is the Lord lost? Why do we need to seek Him?

This brings to mind an interesting incidence in the Scriptures. When Jesus was 12, He went to Jerusalem with His earthly parents for the annual Passover Conference, but when it was time to return home, Jesus stayed back in Jerusalem. His parents assumed he was in the company of their relatives and acquaintances until they got home and realized He was nowhere to be found.

“So, when they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem, seeking Him,” Luke 2: 45. They found Him in the temple after three strenuous days of anxious search. Mary asked Him, “Son, why have You done this to us? Look, your father and I have sought You anxiously.”

Who was actually lost? The Lord who stayed at Jerusalem or his parents who travelled. Jesus’ response to His parent’s question provides us a clue to this question and an understanding of what it means to seek the Lord. Jesus said, “Why did you seek Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?”

The Lord cannot be lost. We are the ones who often travel through life without Him. Like Jesus’ earthly parents, we often assume that He is with us when we have actually ran ahead of Him. We take decisions and venture into our own plans without consulting Him only to realize that we missed Him.

This is often what informs the need to seek Him just like the parents of Jesus did. What then does it mean to seek the Lord?

• To seek the Lord implies that we should focus on Him and not what we can get from Him. It is very easy to get preoccupied with our numerous needs especially in times of emergency. At such times, what drives us to pray is not our love for the Lord but our desperation to meet our needs. There is nothing wrong with asking Him to supply our needs but God doesn’t want us to have things at the expense of Him. The question to ask is, Will you still pray consistently and with the same intensity if all your needs are met? The answer to this question will give us a clue to the state of our hearts whether it is the Lord that we seek or what we can receive from Him. Things are only enjoyed when they are received and used in Him. When we are tempted to seek things at the expense of Him, this command comes handy and the Holy Spirit quietly whispers to our spirits, “Seek the Lord!” Let your focus and gaze be on Him. Seek the Lord!

• Seek the Lord implies that we shouldn’t find an alternative to Him. It is easy to quickly find an alternative solution to our problems when God seems to be slow. We are prone to find quick fixes when we are under pressure. We want to avoid God-ordained routes to success and breakthrough because it seems quite long and uncertain. At such moments, this command comes handy. We are reminded to seek the Lord; to stay with Him and hold on to Him until He comes through for us. Isaiah 31:1 says, “Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, who trust in chariots because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, or seek help from the Lord!” He doesn’t want anything to compete with His love and attention in our hearts. He wants undivided loyalty to Him. He wants us to seek Him.

• Seek the Lord is a call to persevere. The joy of seeking is finding. The search is a waste if we don’t find what we seek. Believers are becoming lazy. We pray but very few of us know how to pray until the answer is received. We don’t know how to wait on the Lord until He comes or responds from heaven. We don’t know how to wrestle in the Spirit until the victory is won. We give up after praying or waiting two or three days over a matter. We have forgotten that Anna, the prophetess, was waiting and seeking the Lord almost all her life. Moses spent forty days on the mountain twice seeking the Lord without food or water.

In a world that’s full of noise and distraction, God looks for those who know how to withdraw and seek Him with reckless abandon; those who are ready to wait and wait on Him all the way until He shows up. “Look to the Lord and his strength, seek his face always.” 1 Chronicles 16:11

“I have the right to do anything, you say but not everything is beneficial.  I have the right to do anything but not everything is constructive.  No one should seek their own good, but the good of others.”  1 Corinthians 10:23-24

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