Hide And Seek

I'm going to write a post about something that gives me a lot of trouble personally.  I've never been one of those people with a deep spiritual "connection".  I've never heard God speak to me in a distinct way.  I've never once felt the presence of a spiritual battle or a demon.  In fact, for a majority of my life, God seems to feel quite distant.  He's hard for me to find.

The problem, though, is that all I know how to do to fix this doesn't seem to help.  If I had to paraphrase what I was raised to know as a child, I would probably diagnose my troubles as being that I just don't believe strongly enough, or I'm not doing enough.  I need to read the Bible more, or pray more, or have more faith (aside: has that statement ever been truly helpful?  If I knew how to just have more faith, wouldn't I already have done it?).

What the church doesn't tell us very often (if ever) is that it's okay to seek.  In fact, God brings this topic up a lot in the Scriptures.  Consistently, over and over again, he gives the same promise:

"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." (Deu 4:29 NASB)
"...if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven.." (2Chr 7:14 ESV)
"I love those who love me; And those who diligently seek me will find me." (Pro 8:17 NASB)
"You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart." (Jer 29:13 NASB)
"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you." (Mat 7:7 NASB)
"God did this so that they would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from any one of us." (Acts 17:27 NIV)

Point blank: if you look for God, you will find him.  And you know what's really beautiful about those promises?  Not one time does the Bible require that you look for God in a certain way or place.  The Creator of the world all everything in it does not limit himself to being found by mere Bible study.  If you look for God in creation, you'll find him.  If you look in science, you'll find him there, too.  If you look in history, or art, or in whatever truly speaks to you, he will meet you there.  There's a fantastic lyric in a song that I like that sums this idea up pretty well:

"Don't try to change who you are / because who you are is how I made you to discover Me."

So don't get discouraged when God seems distant.  There will always be times when that's true.  It's not a reflection of your faith, or effort—and sometimes nothing to do with your behavior, either.   Keep searching.  If your heart is honest and earnest, God will meet you where you are.