It is hard to find inspiration to write when you choose to be uninspired. It is hard to listen to God when you choose not to pray. It is hard to know God when your Bible collects dust on the bookshelf.
A cursory glance of the NIV concordance shows Scripture exhorts believers to ‘seek’ almost thirty times. Consider:
“And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” (Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6)
“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will given to you.” (Matthew chapter 6, verse 33)
“Evildoers do not understand what is right, but those who seek the LORD understand it fully.” (Proverbs chapter 28, verse 5)
“I love those who love me, and those who seek me find me.” (Proverbs chapter 8, verse 17)
Scripture is full of exhortations to seek God and his truth, but why? Why should we seek? There are many answers to that question, but one question before that is simply: what happens if we don’t seek God? What is the impact of choosing not to seek?
You do not have, because you do not ask
One passage in Scripture reminds us of the impact of choosing not to seek God. In James chapter 4, the author rebukes his readers for their behaviour towards one another. James writes,
What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and you do not have, so you murder. You covet and you cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
If only James had ended the passage part way. To be reminded that friction, quarrelling, even murder, is the product of covetousness and unbridled passion would be simple enough, but James reminds us it is more than this.
You do not have, because you do not ask. You do not seek. Instead of finding what we seek in God, we look for it in other people, in what other people have, and we choose to covet instead.
And lest we think that we can simply transfer our passions from looking to one another to God instead, we are reminded by James that we do not receive, because we ask wrongly. We do not ask according to God’s will.
This is why the verse in Proverbs chapter 8, verse 17 precludes seeking with loving him. If seek him out of love for him, we desire the things of God, but if we seek him out of our own selfish, sinful desires, then why should we expect him to satisfy those desires that offend him?
The reality of choosing not to seek is not only that we choose not to seek the truth, but we fail to bring into the light the lies and sin we hold onto when we choose not to seek.
We all seek something
Echoing the refrain of David Foster Wallace: Everybody seeks. We all seek something, but we choose what we seek.
As we consider the words of Scripture and the reminder from James, the question to consider now is: what are we seeking? If we find it isn’t God, may we change our ways while it is still today. As Hebrews chapter 3, verse 13 says,
“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
As long as it is called “today”, may we seek him.