The God Who Searches
“The God Who Searches for Stuff”
In the last episode of “Storming the Gates,” we looked at “the God who finds stuff.” Before I move on to this next subject, I had quite a few responses from people telling me how God led them to find items. Sometimes they were certain that item could NOT have been where it was found!
God is Still Finding Stuff!
My darling mother called me after listening to that podcast. She is a sweet christian woman who just turned 90. She was so excited because, as she stated “No one ever believes me when I tell them how God helps me find stuff!”
She then went on to tell me a number of stories: Car keys found at her church when she had not been to the church after the last time she used them. Her phone lost and then found sitting on top of a stack of folded towels although she knows she had looked there.
She may think no one believes her, but I sure do. I grew up observing what we siblings have come to call “Mom stories.” There were so many answers to prayer and evidences God takes care of my Mom, answering her faith-filled prayer, it has surely influenced my love and desire to pass on the joy of prayer!
Her stories remind me of Psalm 68:5 where it says God is the protector of the widows! She is not alone because God is looking after my Mom
Then, the other day, our church held an end-of-the year outdoor pizza party for the kids. It was a wonderfully warm day at the beach. We had great food and fellowship together.
As one family prepared to leave the father realized he could not find the keys! A frantic hunt for keys quickly ensued, with many other adults and children joining in as they combed the beach and picnic area. I was needed elsewhere and was not involved in the massive key hunt, assuming they would soon be located.
Instead, my daughter stopped to tell me she would be going because she was giving this family a ride home.
I then saw the couple rushing towards their car.
Suddeny I remembered my own podcast!
“Wait!” I called out. “Did you pray?”
“Yes!” They announced and kept going.
“No. No.” I called out, hurrying towards them. “Did you STOP and pray?” They acknowledged they had not.
“Lets stop and pray.”
With that we joined hands and a friend nearby joined also as we quieted our frantic thoughts and called on Gods help.
“Thank you Joni,” stated the mother, “We can’t stay any longer, there is a family emergency.”
I nodded and bid them well as they rushed off. At that point, despite our prayer, even I did not expect God to reveal the keys! How could He when they keys needed found in under a minute for them to drive their vehicle home?
Isn’t that what happens? Emergencies and crises tie up our thoughts and minds. Thats when we tend to misplace items, and also when we tend to be so consumed we take it upon our shoulders to fix the problem instead of stopping to trust the Lord.
Yet, at the same time we STOPPED and gave the situation to the Lord, my own husband was reaching into their vehicle where the kids were waiting, and discovered the keys under a pair of shoes!
I was so excited when my husband returned to tell me he was by the car with the keys when they came to get their children.
Excited because there is a great truth being revealed here!
There is something powerful in choosing to stop and turn over every situation to the Lord! Lost keys are a simple example of how God begins to move when we relinquish control and let Him take care of the situation.
God is Searching
After I wrote and podcasted about God being the God who finds stuff, a new thought began to grow in my mind, as though I heard God whispering “I not only find things, I also search for things.”
So I began looking up verses and discovered yes, God searches as well. His depiction of the lost coin and sheep not withstanding, He is scouring the corners of the earth with His spiritual flashlight in search of something valuable.
And we can help Him find it.
It may seem odd to think of God as searching, when He literally knows where everything is. He counts the hairs on our heads! He knows when a sparrow takes its last flight. He can even see viruses and cell structures. What would God need to search for?
Actually, Gods Word tells us there are a number of things He is looking for. One of them is you.
“Oh not me!’ I can hear you saying. “I already know the Lord. I may have been lost once, but He found me.”
Not so fast there.
He is indeed, still searching for you.
In the last episode we looked at how God helps US find things. He lends a hand with all the little items, such as keys and phones. He also teaches us to rest and trust Him in order to find whatever we may be hunting for, no matter how big or small. He uses those times of searching to teach us how to pray, how to trust Him, and How to rest in him despite life’s irritations.
In the midst of all our searching, God is also searching for something unique and special.
A Fully Committed Heart
Take a look at 2 Chronicles 16:9
“The eyes of the LORD search the whole earth in order to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.“
Picture that! His eyes are combing the earth, sifting through the multitudes of people, hoping to uncover that one special person whose heart is fully committed to HIM.
This actually makes me a wee bit sad.
I want to think I am the one fully committed to Him.
Yet if His eyes are roaming the earth in a fervent search for the fully committed, such a soul must be as rare as a spotted Zebra!
Can we help God find a fully committed heart?
If someone asks me to help them find a lost their lost dog, my first response is “What does it look like?”
Let’s pose that question to ourselves? What does “A heart fully committed to Him” look like? What would a person be doing who is fully committed to God?”
I suspect that person would look a lot like… well, Jesus. You can’t get more committed to God than being the sinless Son of God! Am I right?
And Jesus was a man who rose before the sun and spent hours, even all night, in prayer. He said he ALWAYS did what pleased his father. Jesus said in John 15:10 He kept His fathers commandments. We know He willingly kept His fathers commandments to the point of death on a cross!
The good news is we CAN help God find what He is searching for by BECOMING the one whose heart is fully committed. In this life it is a process, hindered by a sin nature & satan, but within us the Holy Spirit is continually calling and leading us into a FULLY committed relationship with God!
This means, that as we heed Gods call to our heart, we are moving closer and closer to the place where we can be found FULLY committed!
Compare how you responded to how a heart “fully committed” would respond.
True Worshippers
Another thing God is searching for can be found in John 4:23.
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him.”
Just like He wants a committed heart, He wants a worshipping heart. His Spirit is checking the pews and rows at church services for worshippers.
He finds tons of singers, even talented musicians, and those who can play an instrument. There are talented people out there, But God doesn’t need another singer or musicians. He has singers a-plenty.
When I helped run the worship team at our church, it fascinated me how the simple act of leading the singers became the unveiling of an individuals heart attitude. The church was small, but there was still something heady about being in front of a crowd. I saw many gifted, even anointed, men and women whose soul got lost when they were on a stage.
Even among the throngs who raise hands, sing, and swoon, in the congregation, hearts can be led astray by so many distractions. Our minds tend to roam all over the place. We sing and scarcely know at times what we just sang.
Worship is not a formality. It’s not just a Sunday tradition.
What sort of worship does God look for?
First The type that is “in Spirit “ It’s not outward. It’s birthed within us, and then flows out of us because of our connection and love of God.
Secondly, the type that is “in truth.” It’s honest. Raw. It recognizes the truth of our humanity and the greatness of our God at the same time. It’s rooted in what the Bible says about God, not about our own creations of God in our imaginations!
I believe you can know if God has found you in his search for true worshippers.
When the church service is over and your iTunes are silent, do you still think of the greatness of God? When life is crazy, sad, or lonely, do you still say, like Habbakuk in 3:17-18 “Even though the fig trees have no blossoms and there are no grapes on the vines; even though the olive crop fails, and the fields lie empty and barren; even though the flocks die in the fields, and the cattle barns are empty, yet I will rejoice in the LORD! I will be joyful in the God of my salvation!”
Now lets go to the third and what I feel is the most meaningful thing God is searching for.
Gap-Standers
It is stated in a scripture that has special meaning to me. Let me explain:
I was a new believer, when I heard about a prayer meeting at our church that was led by a frail, elderly, Welsh man named “Reverend Willis.” He had been saved during the famous Welsh revival in the early 1900s. I was excited to meet him and hear what I assumed would be some powerful praying.
The prayer room was packed, and I sat towards the front with my good friend, Susan. Reverend Willis sat facing us, leaning on a cane, eyes closed. There was no music. No dimming of the lights. Just a white haired gentleman with a bowler hat and a large King James Bible on a stand beside him.
He gingerly opened the great book, asking us all to turn to Ezekiel 22:20 where he read these words:
“I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.”
I nodded along with the large group of mostly young people.
“Cool verse” I thought.
Slowly, carefully pronouncing each word, Reverend Willis read it again.
“I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one.”
Then he read it…gain.
Annnnd again.
I grew restless. I glanced around to see if anyone else was as weary of the same verse as me. They all seemed attentive and engaged.
Reverend Willis then read the first half with the last half.
“And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none.”
He then read that entire section slowly three or four more times.
I shifted in my seat. Bored. I was waiting for the power. Waiting for the prayer. Where was the energy and fire?
Finally he raised his head, and from my vantage point up front I saw tears glistening in his rheumy eyes. “It’s not that there were no praying people in Israel at that time,” he stated in a thin, choked voice. “There were many. But there was no one to Stand in the gap.”
Now the tears trickled over his cheeks unhindered.
Like the verses previous he repeated the phrase a few more times, slowly. Tears continuing.
I still didn’t get it.
I looked over at Susan and she was weeping along with Reverend Willis.
I was missing something.Thats all I knew.
Reverend Willis finally prayed, asking God to send a man who would stand in the Gap for before Him for the land and the prayer meeting ended.
I walked out into the balmy San Diego air, happy to be free of the long, slow, prayer meeting.
Yet, the relief was quickly followed by shame. I was chagrined at how relieved I felt to be loosed from the monotonous meeting. As I gazed up into the night sky I asked God to help me.
“Help me to have a heart like Reverend Willis’s.”
Despite the desert heat, I felt cold inside. I wanted to weep for the things that made God weep. And even more. I wanted be the one that God would find. The one He would see and say “There she is. She will stand in the gap before me for the land so I don’t need to destroy it.”
“When you look, Lord, find me” became my prayer to God. It’s a prayer that stayed with me through my years in California. Then Michigan. Then when my husband and I planted a church in Michigans lonely upper peninsula.
Whenever I caught my attitude towards the lost being cold or dismissive, I would remember Reverend Willis. “Find me Lord,” I would ask. “Make me the one.”
I think that largely, I have not become the great intercessor for the Lord I hoped to be. Yet I have learned to love the place of prayer. I have learned to fast. I have learned to rely on Him to save the land I love and the people close to my heart.
Like commitment to God and like worshipping in Spirit and in truth prayerful intercession is a practice we grow in and lean into so that we may become the one God is searching for.
