ESOCS Devotional 19 December 2024 – Seeking the Lord
MEMORY VERSE: “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.”Isaiah 55:15 KJV
TEXT: ISAIAH 55:6–13
Seek the Lord while He may be found,
Call upon Him while He is near.
7 Let the wicked forsake his way,
And the unrighteous man his thoughts;
Let him return to the Lord,
And He will have mercy on him;
And to our God,
For He will abundantly pardon.
8 “For My thoughts are not your thoughts,
Nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord.
9 “For as the heavens are higher than the earth,
So are My ways higher than your ways,
And My thoughts than your thoughts.
10 “For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven,
And do not return there,
But water the earth,
And make it bring forth and bud,
That it may give seed to the sower
And bread to the eater,
11 So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth;
It shall not return to Me void,
But it shall accomplish what I please,
And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.
12 “For you shall go out with joy,
And be led out with peace;
The mountains and the hills
Shall break forth into singing before you,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
13 Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree,
And instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree;
And it shall be to the Lord for a name,
For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off.”
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Seeking the Lord means seeking His presence. “Presence” is a common translation of the Hebrew word “face”. Literally, we are to seek His “face. But there is a sense in which God’s presence is not with us always. For this reason, the Bible repeatedly calls us to “seek the Lord … seek his face evermore” (Psalm 105:4). God’s manifest, conscious, trusted presence is not our constant experience. There are seasons when we become neglectful of God and give Him no thought and do not put trust in Him. The brightness of His face and His personal character become hidden behind the curtain of our carnal desires. This condition is always ready to overtake us. That is why we are told to seek His presence continually. God calls us to enjoy continual consciousness of His supreme greatness and beauty and worth.
He reveals Himself in His word. So, we can seek Him through it. He shows Himself to us in the evidences of grace in other people, so we can seek Him through that too. The seeking is the conscious effort to get through the natural means to God Himself; to constantly set our minds toward God in all our experiences, to direct our minds and hearts toward Him through the means of His revelation. This is what seeking God means.
The great obstacle to seeking the Lord is pride: “In the pride of his face, the wicked does not seek him” (Psalm 10:4). Therefore, humility is essential to seeking the Lord.
The great promise to those who seek the Lord is that He will be found: “If you seek him, he will be found by you” (1 Chronicles 28:9, Isaiah 55:6). And when He is found, there is great reward: “Whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). God Himself is our greatest reward. And when we have Him, we have everything. Therefore, “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!” (Psalm 105:4).
Our God is merciful and gracious. He is willing to receive even the wicked and the unrighteous who choose to forsake His way and His thoughts to return to Him (Isaiah 55:7). This is because His thoughts are different from that of man (Isaiah 55:8). He is the God who sends forth His word and it does not return to Him without accomplishing it’s tasks (Isaiah 55:11).
As we direct our minds and hearts towards God in all our experiences, and cry out to Him, He will be found in us.
- Mention the ways by which you can seek God and He’ll be found.
- Father, help me to seek you with all my heart, mind, body and soul; and grant me an encounter with you, in Jesus name.
Further Reading: Isaiah 7:18–25; John 1:29–51; Philippians 2:12–20
ESOCS Devotional 19 December 2024
