Do you have fun memories of playing Hide and Seek? Maybe you still play it with your children or grandchildren and revel in their glee of being found or finding you!
Looking implies a general mindset of trying to find someone or something, whereas seeking suggests the act of trying to get something non-physical. Considering this, perhaps the game should be called ‘Hide and Look’ – but that doesn’t roll off the tongue as well, does it?
As we mature, our seeking broadens and deepens, and it is not a game.
In Keep on Track, letter O highlights Psalm 63:1, related to seeking God. David pens, “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (ESV).
Do you seek God in this way? I sense fervency, necessity, and hope.
As Susan Ashton sings in “Hunger and Thirst”, “If I hunger and thirst for anything but you [God], I hunger and thirst in vain.” Truly, only God satisfies. The song that accompanies letter O in Keep on Track is “As the Deer” by Robin Mark. He sings, “As the deer pants for the water, so my soul longs after you. You alone are my heart’s desire, and I long to worship you.”
David begins his song by acknowledging that God is his God. Merriam-Webster states that to acknowledge a person is to recognize his rights, authority, or status. That holds great weight when it is God who is being acknowledged. There is a need to determine what follows – reverence, submission, dependence.
These desperate expressions of David come from a source of praise and love, having experienced God’s power, help, and justice.
When we seek God, he is always on our mind. When we get caught up in seeking something else to satisfy us, we are ultimately left empty. It is as if there are holes in the bucket and the effort is in vain.
Instead, let’s allow God to fill us, to shape our thoughts and actions. We can do this in earnest by meditating on his Word – studying it, praying it, and hiding it in our hearts.
Seek God. Let him satisfy your soul.