June 18th | 1 Chronicles 28
Hide or Seek?
I remember growing up and playing hide and seek at our church. We loved playing at night because all the lights would be off, and we would be scattered throughout the Sunday school rooms or the fellowship hall in pitch black darkness. We snuck around and felt like ninjas or secret agents (every 8-year-old boy’s dream!).
However, there was one time when hide and seek quit being fun. It was at a party, and about 20 kids went to hide throughout the church. I had a particularly good hiding spot under the chairs in the little children’s nursery, and no one found me. Actually, they forgot about me! After about 30 minutes of waiting to be found, I walked back to base (the fellowship hall), and everyone was eating cake without me! Talk about being let down. It's fun to play hide and seek, but it's no fun to hide if no one is searching for you.
In 1 Chronicles 28, David gives a challenge to his son Solomon, who is taking over as king: "Seek the Lord!" 1 Chronicles 28:9 says, 9 “If you seek him, he will be found by you,
What an incredible promise! If we seek the Lord, we will find Him! This same promise is given by Luke in his Gospel.
Luke 11:9,
“9 And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. 10 For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened.”
God is ready to be found; in fact, He is not really hiding! He desires that we seek Him so that He can pour out His blessings on us. However, as great as a promise it is that we can find the living God, there is also a terrifying promise given to Solomon.
1 Chronicles 28:9, “If you seek him, he will be found by you, but if you forsake him, he will cast you off forever.”
If you fail to seek God, or worse, forsake Him, he will cast you off forever. The Bible describes God as a jealous God. He is not an afterthought in our lives. He doesn’t play second fiddle. He created the world, the stars, the sun, the creatures, and you and me. He doesn’t get glory after us, but He must receive all the glory in our lives!
Yet, too often we are eating cake in the fellowship hall, and if we fail to seek the Lord, we will face eternal punishment by the living God and be cast off forever. We are distracted and enchanted by creation instead of seeking out the creator. God wants you to seek Him, but if you fail to seek Him, there will be judgment. Get up from your slumber and do it. Put the cake down and go after God. The cake will come and go, but God's joy will last forever. Seek the Lord today, and you will find Him!
