
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is near.”
I was reading Isaiah 55:6 this morning and it says to seek God while He may be found. I was having an issue with this simply because why wouldn’t God be found. I mean soon as I read it, I heard: Warning Warning. It was like warning bills were going off. I went and did some digging and there was some great commentary on seeking God, but I think the greatest answer that I got came down to this. There is a window of opportunity that God allows us grace and mercy. During this window, it is our job to seek Him. At some point in time this window is going to close. I believe that when this window closes, that’s when the rapture begins. However, while this window is open, it is our due diligence to want to, to desire to seek God in every vein of life.
As I was reading it, God reminded me of the foolish things and took me to Matthew 25 and the 10 virgins. Synopsis: there were 10 virgins, five of them wise and five of them foolish waiting on the bridegroom. In the parable, when the bridegroom, Jesus, comes, he first denounces the foolish virgins then tells them to keep their eyes open (I’m paraphrasing), to never sleep nor slumber, because you never know the day or the hour when God comes. Here’s the foolish part. The virgins were invited to the wedding ceremony, yet they were ill prepared. Lord, is calling us to Him yet we are saying we aren’t ready. We cannot seek God and not be prepared to answer His call. Does this mean stay outside the church until you get yourself together? Nope. It means bring the craziness of your life into the Kingdom so that He can show you how to get yourself together. The 5 foolish virgins had the 5 wise there. The 5 wise had the extra oil that they needed. Had the 5 foolish been paying attention, then they would have known what was needed. Are you paying attention? Are you heading the Holy Spirit as He gives directions? Some will say that their conscious is guiding them. No baby, that’s God. But, are you paying attention?
He also reminded me of a couple of different scriptures one of them being love covers a multitude of sins and I couldn’t understand the leap until he broke this down. If we believe that His Grace and mercy extend to us during this window where we are to honestly seek Him, then we have to understand that His love also has been extended during this time. Now, if we go back to Exodus, we will remember that the blood of the lamb was applied to the door post so that the deaf angel could pass by those that were covered under the blood. We plead the blood today and should be applying it to our lives and to the lives of those that we love. We are asking God to cover us in the multitude of sins with His blood, His love, His grace, His mercy. It’s the blood that heals, it’s the blood that covers, the blood that saves. We say all of these things yet do we seek Him while pleading the blood? Are we seeking Him during this window or are we merely seeking the blessings that are associated with what He brings? The foolish virgins didn’t have enough of a relationship with Him to know to be prepared when He came to the wedding. Note: they even asked those around to help them out. There will come a day and time when the prayers of the righteous will no longer cover you. The relationship between you and Jesus that needs to be just that - between you and Jesus.
Seeking God doesn’t mean you come to Him perfect. I was speaking to a friend not long ago about how people come to church. We’ve taken “come as you are” to mean how we dress. Let’s back up here. God is calling us to come as we are to Him. To bring our issues and problems, our sins and regrets, our burdens to Him. Come as you are means bringing you – the you that you hide from others – to Him, the storehouse where He will redirect your path and show you the right way to walk out this journey called life. Listen, each church may have their own rules about what is or what isn’t allowed in the church house. That’s fine. If you choose to continue with that church, they you choose to follow those rules. I attend a church where women don’t wear pants in the sanctuary. This was different for me as I came from a church that didn’t have this rule. However, what I wore wasn’t the determining factor on me being a member of this church. Was my soul being feed? Were they teaching from the bible and not from their own insights? Do the leaders have a relationship with God where I see the light of the Lord in them? Are they sayers or doers of the Word or both? God led me to my church – Faith Deliverance Healing Ministries of Charlotte for a reason and that reason had nothing to do whether I wore pants or not. So, what, it wasn’t what I was used to. The most important thing was if I was where God had ordained me to be? That answer was and is still yes. We mix comfort with destiny. We choose to see with our eyes and not our soul. We cannot seek God with the eyes of this world.
I am reminded that the book of Isaiah was written before Jesus walked this earth. Before the Blood of the Lamb was spilled. Yet we are told in this book to seek God. I wonder if the children of Israel had sought God if they would have wandered in the wilderness for 40 years? I wonder if their lack of self-control (one of those attributes of the fruit of the spirit) led to their demise. I mean, they complained after being released from bondage. How many of us are doing the same? Asking God to free us, deliver us from this or that. Then complain because deliverance didn’t come the way in which we thought it was coming. Seeking God means accepting that His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8). Seeking Him means learning to trust Him along the way. Yes, it’s okay to do the Gideon test initially but at some point, that test should be unnecessary. What if we planted our trust in God in the earth and waited for it to multiply? Which man with the talents would we be like (Matthew 25:14-30).
I guess my biggest question here was the while He may be found part of the scripture. It was a wakeup call for me this morning. This opportunity for grace and mercy will not always be here. If I look at the 10 virgins, then I must look at myself. Am I prepared for the life He is calling me to? Am I open to what He will ask of me? The answers to these questions come in how I seek Him. Am I seeking with my whole heart and opening it up to Him to direct me according to His will and His way? Are you?
Be A Blessing and Not Just Blessed
- Nakya
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