Faithful to Seek

“Even as the angry vengeful thoughts boiled through me, I saw the sin of them. Jesus Christ had died for this man; was I going to ask for more? Lord Jesus, I prayed, forgive me and help me to forgive him....Jesus, I cannot forgive him. Give me your forgiveness....And so I discovered that it is not on our forgiveness any more than on our goodness that the world's healing hinges, but on His. When He tells us to love our enemies, He gives along with the command, the love itself.”

This quote is from Corrie Ten Boom in her book The Hiding Place. If you haven't read The Hiding Place, I strongly recommend that you do. Corrie and her family lived in Holland, they had a modest home but were extremely generous to those in need. They held devotions every day as a family, including the orphans who stayed with them and for people who worked with them. When the Nazis took over Holland during World War Two, Corrie and her family worked extensively in the Dutch underground resistance, and risked their lives for Jewish people; their family helped save over 800 Jewish lives. Corrie had many, many stories of how she relied on God in prayer and depended on him where she was miraculously protected from getting caught. However, a neighbor reported Corrie and her family to the Gestapo and they were arrested and sent to concentration camps.

While the women around them in the camp experienced deep depression and hopelessness, Corrie and Betsy held bible studies and sang worship songs in the evening in their barracks so they could preach the gospel and encourage the women to seek God. The living conditions were appalling; women were literally stacked on top of each other, never allowed to bathe or seek medical attention, so lice and many diseases spread rampantly. The guards were supposed to watch the women inside the barracks at night, but because the lice and smells were so horrifying they refused to go inside. They grew angry with the lice consuming them, but Corrie was reminded by God that if they hadn’t been covered with lice they would not have been allowed to have these times of devotion to God. Corrie later said of her time in this hell on earth; “There is no pit so deep, that God's love is not deeper still.”

I am so convicted and inspired by Corrie and her family. She sought God fervently and relied on him in prayer so consistently that she felt the depths of God’s love so deeply as she never had before, even in a horrifying reality. She smuggled in Bibles and saved people’s lives by being completely dependent on God in prayer, which led to many miracles and the grace to forgive those who murdered and abused her family. There truly is no pit too deep that we cannot seek God and see Him, just as Corrie did.

In order for us to know how and why we seek God, it’s important that we see how God seeks us. We learn from his example of seeking and pursuing us.

In Psalm 139, David says of God, “O Lord, you have searched me and known me! You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar. You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord, you know it altogether. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.” 6 God literally knows everything about us. He shows that He is personal, intimate and loving in his detailed knowledge of us. We also need to be personal, intimate, and loving in our detailed knowledge of God.

Although our God is so far and high above us in his thoughts and ways, he is generous in revealing himself to us. God had miraculously saved the Israelites from slavery and suffering in Egypt in the book of Exodus. He used a weak and insecure man, Moses, to lead his people into freedom after hundreds of years of bondage. God provided many miracles for the Israelites even after he miraculously parted the waters of the Red Sea for them to cross through to safety and freedom. God gave them bread from heaven and water from a rock when they had no food or 7 water in the desert. Our Father continued to pursue and provide for his complaining and idol worshipping people. It is so easy for us to pursue God as he never complains, is never changing and never stops loving us.

Here we see the character of Jesus foreshadowed as the bread of life and water of eternal life for us— he sought his people in the desert, he even revealed the character of Jesus to his people here! Now God seeks after Moses and his people by giving them a place to meet him with the tent of meeting. Furthermore, we see that God reveals himself, his name, and his glory to Moses in Exodus 33 Moses says to God,

9 Yet you have said, 'I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.' Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people."

God “spoke with Moses face to face, as a man speaks with his friend” We can treat 11 the Lord of Lords and king of kings as our friend; he treats us as his friend!

And he said, "My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest." And he said to him, "If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?" And the Lord said to Moses, "This very thing that you have spoken I will do, for you have found favor in my sight, and I know you by name."

God told Moses that he knew him by name and found favor in his sight. We need to know the names of God- his character, who he is, and then we are able to praise him as we know Him. Notice the nature of their relationship- Moses was allowed to complain to God; God didn’t stop him but listened to him, as irritating as they may have been.

Moses said, "Please show me your glory." And he said, "I will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim 10 before you my name 'The Lord.' And I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.

God promised that his presence would go with him. We are given access to the very throne of God and his presence as much as we want. In Ephesians 3:11-12 it says,

“This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him.”

God then says to Moses,

But," he said, "you cannot see my face, for man shall not see me and live." And the Lord said, "Behold, there is a place by me where you shall stand on the rock, and while my glory passes by I will put you in a cleft of the rock, and I will cover you with my hand until I have passed by. Then I will take away my hand, and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen."”

God allowed his goodness to pass before Moses and proclaimed his name to him. The more that we know God and seek him, the more we become like him. As 12 astounding as it is that our perfect God knows us, he does.

God was intimate and gracious to reveal his glory to Moses. All we have to do is ask to see God, and he has proven over and over again that He is faithful to reveal himself, his character and his glory to those who ask.

Another man of faith was George Muller, who was a pastor that lived in the 1800s; God worked many miracles through him as he opened a school, many orphanages, sent out bible tracts and supported missionaries. George felt convicted by God that he should not received a salary, or ask for money at all for any of his ministries; no matter how great the need. He instead turned to prayer, asking God to supply all of their needs. He said,

“Trusting the Lord for the supply of my temporal needs keeps me from anxious thoughts like: ‘Will my salary last and will I have enough for the next month?’ In this freedom I am able to say: ‘My Lord is not limited. He knows my present situation, and He can supply all I need’. Rather than causing anxiety, living by faith in God alone keeps my heart in perfect peace”

We can learn so much from George Muller’s example of seeking God, of depending completely on God, and his total 14 devotion to Jesus. We learn from his example when he said,

“But according to my judgment, the most important point to be attended to is this: above all things, see to it that your souls are happy in the Lord! Other things may press upon you; the Lord’s work even, may have urgent claims upon your attention. But I deliberately repeat, it is of supreme and paramount importance that you should seek above all other things to have your souls truly happy in God himself. Day by day seek to make this the most important business of your life.

George also said, “God is not seen by the natural eye; but we have to seek to see him, and to set Him before us daily, hourly, momentarily, by faith; and to bring him and keep him nigh to us by faith.”

Our souls, along with David, can be stirred to say in Psalm 63

“O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is not water. So I have looked upon you in the sanctuary, beholding your power and glory. Because your steadfast love is better than life, my lips will praise you. So I will bless you as long as I live; in your name I will lift 16 up my hands. My soul will be satisfied as with fat and rich food, and my mouth will praise you with joyful lips, when I remember you upon my bed, and meditate on you in the watches of the night; for you have been my help, and in the shadow of your wings I will sing for you. My soul clings to you; your right hand upholds me.”

When I became a mom for the first time and had my son Noah, I was full of joy and completely overwhelmed. I felt like my identity was only as a mother. I decided to be a stay at home mom, for which I was very thankful. However, that came with a new part of my identity that seemed to be the only thing people saw me as. As I enjoyed my new baby and wrestled with confusion, and many long nights of soothing a crying baby, I felt like I couldn’t 17 ”do” anything of value. My time, attention and energy were mostly spent on taking care of my baby and not on what many people in society would say was worthwhile. I learned early on that on those long and exhausting nights, the only way to soothe my crying baby and my tired self was to sing worship songs to God and pray. It dawned on me one night that the thing that I could ”do” was pray! Praying placed my mind back on what only truly mattered; my loving Savior Jesus. Once I fixed my eyes and heart on him the thoughts and approval of man didn’t matter; the joy of the Lord was my strength! And that is how Women’s Prayer began. If you are unsure of how you can serve the Lord, seek his heart and he will show you. As women we can be prayer warriors who seek after our loving God who lovingly seeks after us. 18

Another man of faith who loved the Lord deeply and sought him constantly was Richard Wurmbrand. He was a pastor in Romania who decided to stand against the Communist regime that was taking over his country; forcing pastors to choose to either stop preaching the gospel and only preach their godless propaganda, or go to prison and most likely die for sharing the good news of Jesus Christ. Spurred on by his wife, who did not want a coward for a husband, Richard publicly spoke out against the Communist take over and was quickly kidnapped, put in prison where he was regularly tortured brutally for 14 years.

Rather than give into the deep darkness of hate and suffering, like Corrie Ten Boom, 19 Richard continued to preach the gospel to fellow prisoners and even to those who tortured him. He shocked them with his forgiveness and commitment to Christ that did not waver but grew and grew. In an article by Randy Robert's it is said of Richard and his prison mates, “They turned their prison into a place of worship. They prayed for their guards. Each prisoner desired to practice tithing, giving a tenth of what they had back to God. Since their only asset was the daily ration of bread and broth they received, they collected a tenth from each prisoner in their ward and gave it to the sickest one among them. The prisoners regularly sang praises to God. With no music to accompany them they used their chains as rhythm instruments.” 20

Seeking the Lord as he sought us gives us so many benefits, we are so undeserving but so richly blessed by God meeting us in every way possible! Throughout the Old Testament and into the new, God sought us, to be near us. He even came to us in weak, temporal, bodily form as Jesus. God became Emmanuel and hell could not stand or try to understand it. In flesh he was tempted and never gave in. In flesh he saw our wounds, our neediness, our dirtiness, our sorrows, our doubts, our fears, our wayward hearts that run and rebel from the Father. He looked and saw it all not from afar, but up close and personal. He didn’t just look, but he touched. He touched the dead girl and risked uncleanness, he placed his hands on the lepers and healed them, he spit on dirt and wiped his dirty hands on a blind man’s eyes, he looked into the eyes of an 21 adulterous woman and saw into her soul. He spoke with the outcasts, the destitute, the unclean, the women, the children, the sinful tax collector, adulterers, the puffed up rulers, the downtrodden poor, the useless and ignored. He came near to them, he spoke with them, he touched and healed them, and even more he laid down his life as a willing and perfect sacrifice for them and for you and for me. He died a pitiless, grotesque and humiliating death because he sought us. He sought us and bought us, though we didn’t deserve it or earn it in any way. He pursued us and loved us so much that he made a way by becoming the way. He broke the curse of sin by becoming The Curse and breaking its power forever. How do we respond to such all consuming love? Just as Corrie Ten Boom, George Muller, Richard Wurmbrand and Paul did, We love him back, search for him until we 22 find him. We gather with others to show them that He is the way. We meet with God incarnate for so many hours that we become just like him, a mirror image so that others can see the One who has been seeking and saving them. We rest in his sacrifice, give him praise, honor and glory. We, as Paul said, can look on him with unveiled faces, able to see the glory of God. With Jesus we don’t have to be covered in the cleft of a rock to see God’s glory, his very glory was sent down and revealed to us in his very self!

When we keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, when we desire him above all others and see Him as the slain lamb, the innocent one hanging on the tree, the victorious king; when we behold him as our beloved who has made us His beloved, our joy and love overflow in seeing his great and endless worth. When we see how unbelievably 23 worthy he is, we see that he is worth everything. Our lives, our comfort, our time and energy are not sacrifices and the burden of service is taken over by Him and is now light. The burden of service is no longer our burden but a joy and delight because he is our joy and delight because he is worthy of it all. Look at his nail pierced hands and every drop of blood he gave; look at our savior who was willing to be separated from our Father. He is worth everything, and we can then sincerely pray like David in

Psalm 103 “He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.”

If you have ever watched a video of a father in the military coming home to surprise his wife and children, which I cannot do anymore because I dissolve 25 into a puddle of tears, then we see a small, tiny glimpse of the love of our Heavenly Father. Though he never has to leave us, he is always overjoyed to be near us when we come to him. Close your eyes and for a moment picture a scene of your Heavenly Father holding his arms outstretched to you. His arms are open wide and his face is overjoyed, tears of joy at your return. He longs for you every single moment of every single day, just like this. You run into his strong and sure arms, and feel a love so deep, steadfast, endless, gracious, and all consuming. Every hurt in your heart is healed in his love, every desire for intimacy and closeness is met in his love, every hope for a perfect love and faithful father is met completely in his love. Just meet with him. Seek him while he may be found. Come to him even now. 26