by Warren Baldwin

We frequently speak of "searching" or "seeking" for God and truth. For many of us the idea of "hungering and thirsting for righteousness" has become the basis for how we view our relationship with God: we left him in sin and rebellion and now we turn back to him.

And that is true. But that is only part of the story. Because even with all of our efforts to "find" God, we never would if it were not for the fact that God wants for us to find him. And he has made it possible for us to find him.

You see, even before we began our search for God, before we ever opened the Bible and searched his Word, before we ever began to pray and worship, God was first seeking us.

Think about it. Who was it who

• approached Adam and Eve after they sinned and then tried to hide from their creator?

• sent Nathan to David after his horrible string of sins?

• commissioned prophets to go to the people and plead for their return?

• sent his own son as a sacrifice for the sins of all people?

• sent out fishers of men in the name of his son?

It was God. Before we ever began our search for the Father he has been in diligent search for us. He is the shepherd who searches for the lost sheep, the woman looking for the lost coin, the father patrolling the road looking for the homeward glance of the son.

The Bible says that "we love him because he first loved us." It is equally true that "we seek him because he first sought us."

Our hungering and thirsting for righteousness finds fulfillment in the God who wants to be found.