What it Means to Seek God

Written by Erica Lefever

     Again and again throughout scripture, God invites us to seek Him. 1 Chronicles 16:11 exemplifies God’s drawing voice: “Seek the Lord and His strength; Seek His face continually.” Psalm 24:6 describes a people who seek God and “require Him as their greatest need.” This kind of seeking God is not casual or haphazard. It is intentional. 

    We should be seeking God with the understanding that He is our greatest need. Psalm 27:8 describes the response of an obedient heart to the drawing voice of the Father: “When You said, “Seek My face [in prayer, require My presence as your greatest need],” my heart said to You, “Your face, O Lord, I will seek [on the authority of Your word].” I quote this verse in the amplified version because it emphasizes again that God’s presence is our greatest need, and that we should seek God because His Word tells us to do so. Our hearts should respond in obedience to His voice that draws us to seek His face.

    So what does seeking God actually look like? Sometimes we equate seeking God with praying at an altar to be saved or to be sanctified. Or maybe we define seeking God as prayers for direction in life or intercessory prayers for other people in our lives.

     All of these things involve seeking God in some aspect. But seeking God goes deeper than these things. At its core, seeking God means inviting Him to work in our lives as He wishes to work. It means seeking to know Him, asking Him to reveal Himself and His truth. It means discerning His will. 

    Seeking God means filling our minds with good, wholesome truth. It means placing ourselves in spiritual settings like prayer meetings, revival services, and Bible studies: places we can hear the truth. Really, seeking God is an intense desire to know Him and to be changed by Him.

    Any spiritual progress that we make is the result of diligently, consistently seeking God. Until we desire to know God more than we desire anything else, our spiritual lives will remain stunted and shallow. 

    But, when we’re wholeheartedly seeking after God, He will be faithful to reward our seeking. Jeremiah 29:13 beautifully describes the way that God rewards those who seek Him: “Then [with a deep longing] you will seek Me and require Me [as a vital necessity] and [you will] find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.” 

    The amplified version of this verse describes the intensity of the seeking that will be rewarded. Until we are seeking God “as a vital necessity,” we will not see any results of our seeking. Remember that the converse is true: when we ARE seeking God with that intensity and earnestness, He WILL be faithful to meet our need. This verse is a beautiful promise of the faithfulness of God to reward the diligent seeker of Him.

    Once God has forgiven our sins and given us new life in Him, we have begun a life of seeking Him. As we seek God, we should not be surprised when He shows us new areas that we can grow in and ways we can improve. Eventually, God will lead every believer to a second work of grace: something we call entire sanctification. Each of us has a deeper need than forgiveness for sins that we have committed. 

    Within every person’s heart is a desire for wrong. That part of us is bent to doing life our own way, not God’s way. No matter what we try to do, we cannot overcome or suppress this nature of sin within us. Romans 8:7 describes the war between the carnal nature and God’s will: “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” It sounds hopeless. We have a nature within us that is warring against God, and we can’t subdue it. But God has provided a remedy for this nature within our hearts!

    His solution is entire sanctification: the death of the nature of sin, and an indwelling of the fullness of the Holy Spirit and His nature.

    1 Thessalonians 4:3 declares that sanctification is God’s will for us. The Greek verb tense there refers to a definite momentary action that brings about a change of states. It’s talking about a second definite work of grace. Romans 12:1 describes it this way: “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.” We present ourselves to God, asking Him to reveal our nature of sin. 

    We need to see ourselves as He sees us. Once He reveals our need, we must have faith that He can bring cleansing power to our heart. When God sanctifies us, we become “living sacrifices,” entirely consecrated to God’s will, completely emptied of self and sin, and wholly filled with the Holy Spirit. It’s no longer we that are living, but Christ in us (Galatians 2:20).

     God will give assurance when the work is complete. “The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:” (Romans‬ ‭8:16‬.) We can have confidence that our sins are forgiven, and that the nature of sin is put to death.

    But entire sanctification is not the end of the journey. Rather, it is just a beginning of a life lived wholly for Jesus. Seeking God doesn’t end after we’re sanctified. The Christian life is a life of diligently seeking to know God more deeply. 

    In my experience, the more I know about God, the more I realize I don’t know. As my relationship with God deepens, I’m recognizing the greater fullness of relationship that God wants to bring into my life. I’m reminded of a quote that my college president used in chapel during my freshman year: “To know God is to love Him; to know Him better is to love Him more.” 

    What a beautiful reality that is! My heart longs to draw closer to God and to continue seeking Him. He has been so faithful in my life, and I could never praise Him enough for what He’s done. He saves, He sanctifies, He keeps, and He truly satisfies. Seek God; He’s always faithful to draw near to those who draw near to Him (James 4:8).