Seeking God

August 14, 2009








I remember during my B.C. (before Christ) days wondering about God every once in a while. I wasn't raised in a Christian home. Far from it. Just the opposite really. Fortunately, my non- believing mother did not really force her views on any of us in the family. It just wasn't discussed. My mother was a very strong "old school" school teacher in Arizona before I was even born. She was also an AVID reader and reading meant everything to her. She was determined to instill the love of reading into her four daughters. I am very thankful to her for that. When I started first grade in California which is where we lived by the time I was born, my mother was livid when she discovered they did not teach reading by phonics in the public schools. She was so upset that she yanked me out of that school as fast as she could. Only trouble is.......the only other school she could find to put me in where they taught phonics was a Christian private school. Ironic, isn't it? See? God had a purpose and a plan for my life even way back when I was six years old.


I stayed in the Christian school through the fourth grade. So I learned about God there and experienced His love through my precious Jesus-loving teachers and school principal. My foundations began to be formed by the Lord. We memorized scripture, we listened to and read Bible stories, we learned about the love of Jesus. Everything we did in school was centered around the Lord. Once I learned how to read well, my mother stuck me back into the public schools in fifth grade in order to save money. I'm sure it was a financial burden on the family then to have me in a private school. No church, no Sunday school, no family devotions, no family prayers, no nothing about God in our house from then on. Naturally, I drifted on into the secular world pretty easily. But, I never totally put God out of my mind. He was always there in the back corners of my mind I guess. But definitely on the faraway back burner!


Many years went by and I eventually moved to Kentucky. Yep, the Bible belt part of the nation! Thank God for those so-called Bible belt states! My Kentucky in-laws were all Christian; many of my new friends and co-workers were too. I didn't have a personal relationship with the Lord. Heck I didn't have any kind of a relationship with Him. But, I kept hearing about Him everywhere I went. Even in the shopping malls. I remember one day trying on clothes in a department store dressing room and overhearing the women next to me in the next room talking about the Lord. People were so friendly there too. Different from my whole life living in the Los Angeles area.


I began to wonder who this "God" really was? Or IF He really was at all. I was working at a university there and I had recently accepted a promotion into a new department. Guess what? It was an ALL Christian department as it turned out. All five of my co-workers were Christian! Before too many months went by, I began to sort of seek God just a little bit. I was pretty cautious about it. Pretty slow. Didn't want to do anything too drastic you know. Much too intellectual for that. But, I can distinctly remember one day saying, "God, I don't know if you're even real but if you are, could you sort of show yourself to me in some way. Make me know that you're real. You probably aren't and I'm probably just talking to myself here but at least I have an open mind about it. If you ARE really there then I definitely want to know you."



Well you can probably guess the ending to this story. Suddenly, out of what seemed like nowhere, God stuff (what I now call "Godincidences" began to happen to me. I mean every time I rounded a corner, or turned on the radio or the TV or talked to someone or picked up a book or magazine, it was all about God and, for some reason, all this God stuff was actually interesting to me for the first time in my life. Even I, the intellectual that I thought I was, began to realize that all this stuff cannot possibly be coincidental. So I began to seek God a little more earnestly. I purposely read books about Him (you know me, the avid reader because of my mother). I know. I should have been reading the Bible; not books ABOUT God. But, you know what? All those Christian books actually worked. They did indeed lead me to the Lord. Well, the Holy Spirit really did the leading but all the books and reading and Christian co-workers sure helped! To make a long story a little bit shorter, I finally "got it" and accepted the Lord as my very own personal saviour. The "veil" lifted from my eyes because I had accepted the Lord on faith. That was about 23 years ago. I am so thankful I prayed that prayer that I didn't even know was a prayer at the time. "God, if you're really real, show me, etc...." He did and I am ever so thankful. It's been an incredible journey ever since.


God's perfect Word tells us to seek him:


I Ki 22:5: "...first seek the counsel of the Lord."


I Ch 28:9: "....If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will


reject you forever."


Ps 34:10: "...but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing."


Ps 119:2: "Blessed are they who keep his statutes and seek him with all their heart."


Ps 119 :10: "I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands."


Pr 8:17: "I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me."


Heb 11:6: "....he rewards those who earnestly seek him."



These are just a few of the many scriptures that have to do with seeking the Lord. Read them; look up some more. Read the entire scripture. Notice, in some cases, the "other" half of the scripture. For example, in I Ch 28:9 above it says, "If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever." Whoa! Pretty important to read it all, isn't it?


Every word of God's Word is true. It's all real. You can take it literally. What he says, he means and he always keeps his promises. If you know him, you already know this. If you don't know him, you might be a little skeptical. Take a chance. Do what I did. I was a little skeptical too. But, I was willing to "give it a try" so to speak. God wasn't offended by that. He knew my heart was right. I was full of doubt - full to overflowing with doubt. But I really did want to know if it was possible that God really might be real. I asked him to "reveal" himself to me (not in those words) and so he did. What he did for me, he'll do for you too. It was all so simple really and so outright amazing! God is wonderful. Don't miss out on knowing him. Seek him. Just ask him to reveal himself to you too. He will. I know he will. What he does for one, he'll do for another. He is so amazing; so merciful; so good; so kind and so perfect!