God Searches For Those Who Search For Him

For the eyes of the LORD range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him. You have done a foolish thing, and from now on you will be at war - 2Chronicles 16:9 NIV

We are established as God's people as a result of fully setting our hearts on seeking God and His will. My emphasis here is not the initial point in time when we become God's children, but the heart that God is looking for in us that eventually leads us to Him. The principle will become clearer when look into the context surrounding the passage (read the preceding verses of the chapter). King Asa acts shamefully towards God by showing his loyalty to a foreign king. The temple treasure is given in order to form a treaty. Hanani rebukes Asa for relying on the king of Aram instead of relying on God (vs.7)! Then the verse quoted above is a conclusion to the preceding verses. Can the same be said of our hearts when we put more faith in ourselves, other people, or other things around us? Are we seeking God's eyes? Do we want His strength or do we want to settle for low living, giving up on His plan for our lives? Is God's grace worth more than gold or do we sell out, giving away what belongs to God. We can be sure that being without God and in the company of the godless is not actually a secure place. The comfort of sinners is hostility not peace. We will find God only when our hearts have abandoned all attachments in this world--especially ourselves--and when we reach out to the hand that has always been reaching for us (Acts 17 below).

24"The God who made the world and everything in it is the Lord of heaven and earth and does not live in temples built by hands. 25And he is not served by human hands, as if he needed anything, because he himself gives all men life and breath and everything else. 26From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. 27God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us. 28'For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'