Text: “Seek the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6).
Is the Lord going to move away? Some people might get that idea when they read this Scripture. If you think for a moment, “Seek the LORD while he may be found” does sound like He is going to leave us. The real truth is He is not planning to move away from us or leave us.
The real issue here is that His children tend to move away from Him. Many young people are raised in very good church-going families. Sometimes these young people do not want to go to church, but are pressured into going by their parents.
The parents do this in hope that when the child becomes of age and out on his or her own, they will remember what mom and dad tried to impress upon their mind. Not only will they remember, but hopefully they will guide their children in the same direction.
If young people are taught to seek God on a daily basis, chances are they will not drift from Him or build any kind of partition or barrier separating them from God. Barriers are built when people become worldly.
Barriers can be money, job, living accommodations, automobiles, clothing, gadgets, or any other thing of the world. Barriers can be a lifestyle of drugs, alcohol, marijuana, wild living. Barriers can be anything that comes between an individual and his or her relationship with Almighty God.
Barriers can come about because an individual is looking for what they believe is the abundant life. Some people believe that an abundant life come from possessing worldly possession. The more money that can be made enables a person to buy more things which give them the feeling that they now have an abundant life.
Did God say that in order to have an abundant life, one must acquire as many earthly things as possible? I don’t think so! Jesus had no earthly possessions, but He had an abundant life. What did He have that put Him in the abundant life category?
Jesus had a very close relationship with His Father. He had love in His heart. He was willing to listen to people who were in need. His healing hand was available to anyone who was in need. He was not concerned about time when someone approached Him.
Jesus didn’t need a Blackberry to check His calendar to see if He had time to help the needy. He didn’t need to check with His secretary concerning his itinerary. When people were hungry, he fed them. When they couldn’t see, He gave them sight. When paralysis was present, He removed it. When life looked bleak, He gave them hope. He did not erect barriers, but He lived the abundant life.
Jesus said, “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10). Jesus wants each of us to live an abundant life, but for some reason we choose to erect barriers. We erect barriers because we believe we are in control of our life.
We want what the world has to offer instead of what God offers. We think the abundant life is what we can acquire. We are like the man the Psalmist spoke of when he said, “Here is the man who did not make God his strength, but trusted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness” (Psalm 52:7). We leave God out of our life. We believe He is present, but He is not interested in our daily existence.
We forget to involve Him in our daily routine. We don’t call upon Him when blessings come our way. We are not thankful for all He provides for us. Oh yes, we do call upon him when we are in some difficulty, something has not gone our way, or we have an issue and see no way to get through or around it. We often think of God as an emergency device and use Him in that capacity.
We tend to think we can hide things from God because we can’t see Him. We forget that God is present everywhere, He is all-powerful, and He knows everything. We are thinking worldly with our earthly minds instead of thinking heavenly.
We begin to realize we have drifted from God when we encounter trials and tribulations which bring us to our knees and the only way to look is up. When we begin to worry about things that have not happened or may never happen, we have a tendency to look to God.
We realize we have drifted when we start to question our faith. Life has been good to us for a long time, we have taken everything for granted, and then events in our life change and we begin to question our faith. The good life, the abundant life, the life of joy and happiness seems to have been lost and we realize we are drifting from God. God does not drift from us, but instead, we drift away from the presence of God.
“Seek ye the LORD while he may be found; call on him while he is near.” The longer we wait to seek God, the harder it will be. It will be harder because we have become set in our ways and we enjoy what we think is an abundant life.
We need to seek Him, turn to Him because we do not know how long this earthly life will last. We may be in His presence before we know it. One day we will be standing before Him as He opens the Lamb’s Book of Life.
Have you ever been thirsty? We have all been thirsty at some time or another. What do you want when you are thirsty? You want a drink of water. Will the drink of water last the rest of our life? No! When we are hungry, what do we want? Yes! We want something to eat. After we eat, are we set for life? No!
There is One who will take away our thirst and give us Living Water. There is One who will give us the Bread of Life. We will not be required to pay money for these things. The drink and food God provides cannot be purchased with money.
The drink and food God has to offer is nourishment for the thirsty and hungry soul. If we do not get this food, we will starve spiritually. God is offering to save us and give us an abundant life. The saving grace of God is free. All the money in the world cannot purchase it. He calls this His salvation.
Children have a tendency to hear only what they want to hear. As children, we have all been down that road. Mom or dad would say something to us, but we would only hear the part that appealed to us. I would venture to say that at times we probably missed things that would have benefited us, but we chose to only half listen.
God is saying, “Listen, listen to me, and eat what is good, and your soul will delight in the richest of fare. Give ear and come to me; hear me, that your soul may live. I will make an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David” (Isaiah 55:3-4). God is saying that if we listen to Him, He will take care of us. He promised David a wonderful place for the Israelites to live if they would just listen and pay attention.
God said to David, “And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leaders over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies” (2 Samuel 7:10-11).
God was willing to give His people an abundant life if they would only listen and follow His directions. He is telling us the same thing today. He will grant us the abundant life if we will only listen to His Word and follow His directions.
Sad to say, the Israelites did not listen to the words of Almighty God. They were not willing to accept God’s promise. Instead, they chose to disobey God and continue to be involved with idols. This sounds just like people today.
The Word is present for everyone to hear or read. The promises were written a long time ago and as we know God doesn’t break a promise, but we, for whatever reason, choose not to believe His promise and obey His Word.
David was a witness to the people, a leader and a commander of the people (v. 4). Some people listened to him and followed his witness and leadership and some did not. Today, we have leaders whom we call ministers, pastors, and clergy who teach us the Word, what it means, how it applies to our daily life, but we don’t always listen, pay attention, and take heed.
Do we have to wait a period of time before we can turn to our Creator? No! We need to seek Him now. We don’t have to wait until we mess up our life and become miserable before turning to Him. We don’t have to wait until we have exhausted the help of our family and friends before we seek His help. We don’t have to wait until we are at the point of no return.
God is always speaking to us in the Person of the Holy Spirit, but we do not pay attention. We seem to be so engrossed in worldly ways and worldly fixes instead of listening to the One in our heart. We waste precious time trying to find the abundant life when it is within us.
It is never too late to turn to God and follow His directions. Jesus said, “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). We struggle with life’s issues. We worry about things that will probably never happen.
We look to other people for advice and assistance, when we should be calling upon our Father. Instead of living the abundant life provided for us by our Creator, we struggle with man’s way. We waste valuable time.
Jesus’ arms are stretched forth just waiting for us to seek His help. He will not turn anyone away. He is available all the time; seven days a week and 24 hours a day. His prayer line is direct and one will never get a busy signal.
His Words says, “Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Psalm 124:8). There is no issue or problem too small or too big for God. There is no circumstance or situation too complicated or complex for Almighty God. He is there to help us, but it is our responsibility to “Seek the LORD while he may be found, call upon on him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6).
“The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth” (Psalm 145:18). He lives in our heart. He is always present. He is righteous and He is loving. He will help us live the abundant life, if we will only call upon Him.
What is the abundant life we are seeking? If we are thinking worldly, we are thinking of acquiring worldly possessions. The more things we have the happier we will be. The more stuff we accumulate the easier life will be. At some point we realize this does not constitute the abundant life.
The abundant life really lies in having the fruits of the Spirit. What are these fruits? These fruits are acquired by living for God according to His Word. “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Jesus possessed these fruits. They are only available to us by joining our life with His. When we accept Him as our own personal Lord and Savior, He becomes a part of us and lives within us. We know Him intimately and we begin to follow in His footsteps.
God showed His love to us when “….He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16). God’s love for us is so great that He does not want to lose even one of His children. When one of His sheep is lost, He searches diligently for the lost one.
God gave us the breath of life to live here on earth for a period of time and to carry on His work. He wants our earthly life to be good, productive, and abundant. He wants to be a part of our life. He asks us to call upon him in time of need, but we should also thank Him for His many blessings. God wants each of us to spend eternity with Him in the mansion just over the hilltop.
Conclusion:
God wants each of us to live the abundant life and He is willing to help us if we would only seek Him. The abundant life He talks about is the one filled with the fruit of the Spirit. This is the life His Son lived because He possessed these very same fruits.
He will share these fruits with us if we will come to Him, trust Him, abide in His Word, and follow the Words in Red. His Son is standing at the door of the heart of each of His children just waiting to be invited in. He holds in his hand the abundant life for each of us and all we have to do is accept it.
Amen.
