Our Call to Seek the Lord Earnestly

(Overcomer Wu)

“But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.” --Deuteronomy 4:29

“Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.” --Isaiah 55:6

We are all keenly aware of how vital water is to the existence and the sustenance of life. We depend upon it as a key source of life. Without water, our crops and cattle along with all the other food supply that we depend on would die, most greeneries will wither, there will be no fishes and shell-fishes in the ocean and rivers, the earth would overheat, and all life on earth would perish one after another. In short, water is indispensable for life!

Occasionally, we see certain parts of this globe striken with drought and the people suffer tremendously to the point of fatality. Likewise, there are spiritual droughts that come upon individuals, churches and nations. They come as seasons of spiritual dryness when apathy to God's will, waywardness from the Spirit's leading, and sin characterize our lives. God’s Word speaks clearly to us about these times of spiritual drought:

"God sets the lonely in families, He leads forth the prisoners with singing; but the rebellious live in a sun-scorched land” (Psa 68:6).

"O God, You are my God; earnestly I seek You; my soul thirsts for You, my body longs for You, in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psa 63:1).

"You will be like an oak with fading leaves, like a garden without water” (Isa 1:30).

"The poor and needy search for water, but there is none; their tongues are parched with thirst” (Isa 41:17).

I believe these verses describe much of the world today – a world without hope and apart from God – a dry and weary land where there is no water. It might describe you as an individual as well. Is there a spiritual dryness in your life? Is there a lack of fervency concerning spiritual matters and a lack of zeal for God's House? Is your prayer life dull and repetitious or virtually non-existent? If so, perhaps we have severed ourselves and had unwittingly forsaken God Who alone is the Fountain of living water (Jer 2:13). As we turn back to God and draw our sources from Him, His Word promised that there will once again be times of refreshing…of rain from heaven:

"Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew, like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on new plants” (Deut 32:2).

"He will be like rain falling on a mown field, like showers watering the earth” (Psa 72:6).

"I will bless them and the places surrounding My hill. I will send down showers in season: there will be showers of blessing.” (Eze 34:26).

"Let us acknowledge the Lord; let us press on to acknowledge Him. As surely as the sun rises, He will appear; He will come to us like the winter rains, like the spring rains that water the earth” (Hosea 6:3).

"Sow for yourselves righteousness, reap the fruit of unfailing love, and break up your fallow ground; for it is time to seek the Lord, until He comes and showers righteousness on you” (Hosea 10:12).

What is this rain we so long for and need? Ultimately, it is not even the Lord’s presence but the Lord Himself. Jesus Himself said, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.” (Jn 7:37). The "times of refreshing" is not so much an experience as it is a Person – a life that draws its full supply of life from Christ Himself. Whether we are asking for ourselves, our church, or our nation, Hosea chapter 10 gives us the solution we need to end our spiritual drought and receive God's stream of living water:

"Sow for yourselves righteousness.” Both Old and New Testaments teach us the spiritual principles that you reap what you sow (Gal 6:7). If you plant wheat, you do not harvest corn. If you plant pursuit of wealth, you will harvest spiritual poverty. Much of the world has been sowing greed, pleasure, immorality, and self-centeredness…and we are reaping the results of that. Unfortunately, it is all too easy for Christians to join with the secular society in sowing and reaping the same spiritually-detrimental seed. God’s Word says to sow righteousness. We know that Christ is made unto us our righteousness (1 Cor 1:30); thus He is the One that we sow in all that we do or say. God’s Word also gives us a standard for righteousness. Righteousness is not what seems right to a man, but what is right to God.

"Reap the fruit of unfailing love.” When righteousness has been sown, we will begin to harvest the fruit of unfailing love. God loves everyone, but the full benefits of that divine agape love, come to those who have accepted God’s righteousness, which is Christ Himself as we've seen in 1 Corinthians 1:30, as the standard for their lives. This divine, unchanging, unfailing love is assured to those who live and walk by the Spirit – Who is also said to be the stream of living water that we enjoy within us according to John 7:39-40 – for the divine agape “love” is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal 5:22).

"Break up your unplowed ground.” Unplowed ground has a hard time receiving rain. Sun-scorched, baked earth forms a hard crust and when rain comes, it simply runs off rather than soaking in and making a difference. Unplowed ground is a picture of the unrepentant life – a life that refuse to deal with and plow away what is hindering the growth of the seed of divine life and love within us. The rain of God’s righteousness will not soak in and change a life that is hard and unrepentant. So the command here is: "Repent! Change the course of your life!” To repent in Greek literally means to make a complete change in the direction we were headed. That is always God’s call to those seeking revival. Today so many seeking revival, the rain from heaven, seem to want just good feelings or some nice meetings, which could all be a sham. However, God’s command is that we break up the hard, unplowed ground of our lives, then we shall see true rain of revival.

"It is time to seek the Lord.” Those in periods of spiritual dryness often go looking for answers in many places. But God’s Word directs us to the only place where we can experience renewal…the rain of heaven…and it is to seek the Lord. The sad truth of the Christian life is that we all have a tendency to be drawn away from the Lord. We find ourselves spiritually dry and wonder why such a thing could happen to a believer. We need to continually draw our life from Christ just as we need to continually drink water for the sustenance of life in the physical realm. Complacency and a natural tendency toward getting distracted and entangled by the affairs of this world require us to lay aside every weight and the entangling sin that easily besets us (Heb 12:1) so that we may seek after the Lord and pursue towards the mark of our high calling. Whenever there is spiritual drought in the land and the heavenly rain is being sought after, the spontaneous response we ought to have should be, "We need to earnestly seek the Lord!"

Seeking implies and indeed requires effort. Therefore, we are exhorted to seek the Lord with all our heart and with all our soul (Deut 4:29). It is not a vague desire but a consuming passion. It requires persevering prayer. Though times of regional or national revival are completely in the Lord’s hands, personal revival and renewal comes when we repent and dedicate ourselves to earnestly seek the Lord. Hosea 10:12 gives great hope to us today. When we have broken up the unplowed ground in repentance and begin to seek the Lord with all our heart, then the promise of His supply shall surely come. “The poor will eat and be satisfied; they who seek the LORD will praise him!...” (Psa 22:26). “The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing” (Psa 34:10). “Let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice!” (Psa 105:3).

“Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face evermore!” (1 Chron 1611)