| Why is God So Hard to Find? |
| by David A. DePra |
| Is God hard to find? The answer is "yes!" In fact, God is |
| absolutely impossible to find. Unless that is true, we don't need |
| the grace of God. We don't need God to take the initiative. God |
| could leave it up to us to find Him. |
| Now, having said that, it is nevertheless a fact that God HAS |
| found us. He HAS taken the initiative to seek us out. Therefore, |
| the question, "Why is God so hard to find?," becomes something |
| more than a question. It becomes an admission. I am admitting |
| that I am needy and helpless without God. HE must take the |
| initiative to seek me and find me, or I am lost. |
| This not only applies to my condition before salvation, but |
| also after I am saved. Even then I cannot find God everytime I |
| want to find Him. I may have not yet have the ears to hear and |
| eyes to see Him. God has to initiate the process which will |
| develope these in me. |
| Ears to Hear, Eyes to See |
If you own a dog or a cat you have probably been amazed |
| from time to time as to how they can hear things you can't hear, |
| and see things you cannot see. A dog's smell, for instance, is |
| about one-hundred times more powerful than that of a human |
| being. Add to that the ability of dogs to hear sounds which are |
| out of the range we can hear, and you have an animal which has |
| far more access to this physical realm than does an average |
| human being. |
| Now notice: A dog can hear sounds and smell odors which |
| we cannot hear or smell. In fact, we don't even know they are |
| there TO hear or smell. They are, as it were, OUTSIDE of the |
| range of our perspective. We do not have a point of reference |
| for them. |
| Now ask: Does the fact we have no access to certain smells, |
| sounds, or objects in this physical realm mean that they are not |
| there? Of course not. The dog hears them. The dog sees them. |
| They ARE there. And they are just as real as those things which |
| we CAN hear, see, and smell. They are simply outside of OUR |
| ability to access them. |
| Notice what all of this means: Reality exists completely |
| independent of our ability to perceive it. There is much more to |
| reality than we can perceive. And that part we CAN'T perceive is |
| just as real as the part we CAN. In effect, our perception is not |
| the basis for physical reality at all. |
| The Spiritual Realm |
| Now, all of that is physical. But how much more is the |
| spiritual! Just as this physical realm includes vast regions and |
| ranges which exist far beyond the ability of our senses, so does |
| the spiritual realm. There is a spiritual realm -- the realm or |
| kingdom of God -- which is far more real than even the |
| physical realm. But as a human being born in Adam, we have |
| nothing about us which is able to access it. We cannot see it, or |
| have any possibility of sensing it, unless we are born again. |
| The reason that we cannot see the kingdom of God unless we |
| are born again is that through sin Adam lost that ability. In the |
| original design God had for man, Adam was equipped with |
| physical senses which enabled him to access all of this physical |
| realm. We might even guess that his physical senses exceeded |
| all of God's other creatures -- for he was given dominion over |
| them. But that was only the beginning. Adam was also |
| equipped with the spiritual senses which enabled him to walk |
| and talk with God. It was as natural for Adam to live in the spirit |
| as it was for him to live in the natural. Indeed, it is most probable |
| that before the sin, the two were ONE. There was not the kind of |
| distinction between spiritual and physical which we have today. |
| Not even close. |
| When Adam sinned, he essentially walked away from God. |
| He said, "I declare my independence. I will now live for myself." |
| And God let him. But in doing so, Adam not handed over the |
| physical realm to Satan, but he knowingly forfeited all access to |
| the spiritual. He therefore entered into the realm of death. He |
| became a sadly diminished version of his former self. He lost |
| many of his God-given abilities. Corruption set in. Adam had |
| BECOME something other than God intended. |
| In the final analysis, THAT is why "God is so hard to find!" |
| Why? Because, by natural birth, we are a creature with no |
| capacity to find Him. All of that is lost. We can no more see the |
| kingdom of God -- spiritually -- than we can physically smell |
| what a dog smells. There just isn't anything of God in us to give |
| us that ability. So unless God initiates revealing Himself to us, |
| we will never see. Unless He puts us through trials of faith which |
| will expand our spiritual senses, and set us free from the |
| incumberances of the old creation, we cannot know Him. |
| Born Again |
| If we are born again, then we can see the kingdom of God. |
| But we aren't going to see all of it, all at once. We are going to |
| be as a baby who has all of the sensory skills inbred, and in |
| place, but who must develope them by growing and learning. |
| God Himself will bring us through the experiences necessary to |
| cause us to grow. |
| Actually, this is great news. It means that it is not up to me to |
| find God. It means I don't have to fret and worry because I don't |
| understand. It means that I simply need to believe without |
| seeing, and to fall into the hands of the Living God. |
| The "Cost" of Grace |
| There is infinitely more to God than I can perceive -- even |
| on my best spiritual day. We are all in the process of growth, |
| and it will take a lifetime. But let's ask: If God HAS found me, |
| and is in the process of forming in me ears to hear and eyes to |
| see, then how does He do that? What is my part in all of it? |
| I do have a part in it. In fact, there is a great price I must pay |
| in order to see, and enter, into the kingdom of God. A very great |
| price. |
| A great price? How can this be? Isn't grace free? How could |
| there be a cost attached to anything which God gives to us |
| through Jesus Christ? |
| Everything God gives us in Christ is totally free. And He gives |
| us ALL THINGS in Christ. Therefore, ALL THINGS are free. We |
| can't earn, merit, or do anything at all to obtain the things of God. |
| Not by works or by service. Not by a good attitude or by much |
| prayer. ALL THINGS are by grace alone. |
| So what is this "price?" The price is that we must let go of |
| that which is totally worthless and dead -- the old creation. We |
| must "lose" that -- lose our life. And from the perspective of |
| the old creation, and from the perspective of the way we live and |
| operate, this is a very great price. It is the loss of our life as we |
| know it. |
| Here we see the great trade-off. It is a trade-off which |
| applies to every aspect of God's grace in Jesus Christ. It is really |
| nothing more than death and resurrection. For every new |
| avenue of freedom and Truth into which I move, I must let go of |
| that which had occupied it's place in the old creation. I must |
| "drive out the inhabitants" of my old "land" and take possession |
| of what God has freely given. |
| The reason there is alway a "trade-off" is that we are not |
| born on neutral ground. Rather, we are born in bondage to sin |
| and death. Therefore, to move out of that, into freedom and |
| Truth, we must discard the old. We must make that choice. |
| This is the "cost" of grace. But it is NOT the price I must pay |
| to receive grace. No. It is the price I will pay if I HAVE received it! |
| In effect, there is no price FOR grace. But there is a great price |
| BECAUSE of it -- from the perspective of the old creation. |
| Again we see how simple are the things of God. God freely |
| gives us all things in Jesus Christ. All we have to do is believe |
| and receive them. But as we do, death will come to the old |
| creation. Why? Because we must leave it behind to enter into a |
| new realm. |
| Refusing God |
| Because all things are freely given, it is possible to refuse all |
| or any part of them. This possibility exists not only because God |
| will not violate free will, but because it is the only way things |
| could work when everything is absolutely free. Freedom, if it is |
| real, must include the right to refuse. |
| Why would a Christian refuse God? Never think that when |
| Christians refuse God that they are standing there merely |
| refusing what is good. No. Christians who refuse God ALWAYS |
| refuse Him because they want something else instead. ALWAYS. |
| It is always a matter of refusing Truth and freedom in favor of |
| something temporal. |
| Don't limit these temporal things, however, to merely that |
| which is material in this world. Certainly some do refuse God in |
| favor or riches or material things. But there is a more common |
| reason why Christians refuse God: They hold to spiritual things. |
| What kind of spiritual things? Self-righteousness. Their |
| ministry. Spiritual pride. Their security in their own spiritual |
| status. Some Christians cannot bear the thought of being |
| exposed for what they are before God. They cannot bear to |
| become nothing; as a little child. No. They demand that they are |
| a spiritual giant. Anything else seems unthinkable. |
| The reason for such a condition is unbelief. God will be |
| faithful to continually expose us as needy sinners, who are totally |
| bankrupt and in need of His grace. But it is possible for us to |
| continually pass through these exposures and come out "in tact." |
| We can harden our hearts and salvage our self-righteousness. |
| May God deliver us from such a terrible plague. |
| God IS Hard to Find |
| God IS hard to find. Impossible to find. But wonderfully, WE |
| are not hard to find. Despite the fact that we are LOST, God has |
| indeed found us. He has us in His hand. And even though we |
| may not know where He is leading us, we can rest in the fact that |
| He IS leading! |
| Jesus Christ did not come into this world to give us a mandate |
| to find God. He said, "The Son of Man comes to seek that which |
| lost." God is seeking us. God is finding us. And God is taking us |
| on to His eternal purposes. Our part is to let Him, by letting go |
| of those things which cannot enter the kingdom of God. |