SEEKING AND FINDING
SEEKING AND FINDING
“He that seeketh findeth” (Matthew 7: 8). This is a most encouraging word. Of course, it is not seeking carnal things, but spiritual, divine blessing. The finding is in relation to the seeking. It does not say that you will find what you do not seek. The meaning of the promise is that if you feel the need of any divine blessing, and you seek for it, you shall find it. Why is any one lacking in grace or light? Simply because there is a deficiency in seeking for it; for if you seek it you shall find it.
If these were the terms an earthly parent prescribed for his children they would always feel that it was their own remissness that caused them to be deficient or lacking in any gift that thus he offered them. Do we really believe that we receive from God everything of His that we seek for or that we value, and as we value it? We often think we value some spiritual blessing when we do so very partially, and even when we really desire it, we are often not ready for it. We have to undergo some deep exercise of soul before the end desired is reached; to make room, as it were, for the blessing. A briar in the hedge may desire to be a standard rose tree, but it must submit to be grafted and all its own buds to be checked before the desire can be fulfilled. If you seek you will find, but you must be prepared for the process by which it will be effected.
[p. 435] The great thing is to be growing up unto Christ. The young christian who is growing is more interesting and more helpful to others than the most advanced one who is stationary. You may be very religious, occupied with yourself, but when you come to Christ you are freed from yourself - you find Him, like the sun, commanding your day, not a star to be seen, any more than the darkness. You are a dissolving view, and not only is Christ everything but you are transformed. The nearer you get to Him the more assured you are of His grace, and the more set free from all doubts and difficulties - not only entranced, like the queen of Sheba, but transformed.