Question: What does it mean to seek the Lord? How do you know if you are seeking the Lord? Are the promises in the Bible for those seeking - they will find - for saved believers or for those unsaved or both? Does a believer have to seek the Lord if they have already found the Lord?


Dear friend,

My apology for not answering the question earlier. Somehow this and another question got missed. To seek the Lord means several things.

1. It can mean to seek His will on the various choices we are to make. This is done by studying His Word and finding the directions He has given us there. You may of course use those who have studied God's Word to assist you. This search must be in connection with prayer in which you seek His Holy Spirit to guide you in the search, to enlighten your eyes for His will as well as to make your willing to obey His direction.

2. It can mean to seek Him to receive His pardon and mercy. We all need to be reconciled to our Maker and God has opened this way in His Son Jesus Christ. Seeking Him and His salvation would mean that you seek to understand the way by which you can be saved. This is through repentance and faith. To understand where repentance is needed, you need again to seek His Word and pray for His Spirit to know what sins there are in your life that need to be repented of. Seeing your guilt brings to the foreground the need for forgiveness. This is offered to us in Christ His Son. Seeking the Lord would mean that we search His Word for the promises and directions that He gives how we can be reconciled. Again, along with this comes the need for the Spirit of God to enable us to repent and trust in His inviting promises and re-assuring offers of grace.

3. To seek the Lord will be an ongoing thing in the life of God's people. It is easy to wander away from the communion with God and experience the spiritual desertion due to backsliding. Seeking the Lord in that case would be the returning to God with confession of sin and taking our refuge to Him in Christ for the fresh pardon of our sins. Seeking the Lord for a child of God would mean to daily seek the nurturing of this relationship with Him by the reading and meditation upon His Word.

So, you see that the phrase 'seek the Lord' can be applied several ways. Your question is very good; it forced me to detail for myself what is exactly meant with the statements we can so often make. I encourage you to read trace all the references in God's Word that use these words 'seek the Lord' and see whether it confirms what I said above.

Thanks for your patience in waiting for the answer.

Warmly,
Pastor Vergunst