Why is seeking God important?

Thirdly, "No one seeks for God." The religion of the natural man has the appearance of seeking after God. Nevertheless a religion of works, barren moralities, and ritual observances, so far from seeking God, is in reality an effort to quiet conscience and keep God at a distance. Fallen man may be intensely religious, but does not really seek after God.

Man never thought to find a friend in God. He had naturally no confidence in his Creator. He broke with God when he became a sinner, and to this day he has no desire for the healing of the breach. He wishes not to have to do with God, nor would he ever have sought God if left to himself. But God had desires after man, and if man will not seek God, God will seek him. If there is none that seeks after God, there is a God who seeks after man. He sought after Adam and Eve when they had abandoned Him, and when they were doing their best to make it impossible for Him to find them.

When divine light breaks in upon the soul of man — I do not say how it comes, for God has wonderful ways of letting the light into the soul — it makes him feel that there is something wrong with him, that there is a void, a vacancy, an emptiness, a want; that he is not satisfied. That is the first thing. Then, very likely, he will find out that he has to meet God... the man who gets his heart illuminated gets earnest, begins to get anxious, and says, How can I meet God, and where can I find Him?

"But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He rewards those who seek Him." If one does not honestly believe that "God is," then his apparent religious approach to God is thorough hypocrisy. Faith is simply a true recognition of God, and certainly nothing less than this can please God. This is the elementary essential, while the last part of the verse shows the active working of faith, that is, diligently seeking God, which is certainly to be rewarded, in accordance with the faithful nature of God.

Notice that they seek "Him"; they seek to please Him, to be more like Him. This is not a merely "intellectual" activity, but it is a question of the whole heart being engaged. My heart yearning after Him day by day, all day long. "You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart" is the wonderful promise (Jer. 29:13).

Man being a lost sinner, having by his love of sin strayed from his Maker into hopeless darkness, is always under responsibility to return to God, who has a righteous claim upon the love and obedience of all His creatures... "Seek the LORD while he may be found" is His command to the wayward. His forbearance with sinners will not continue indefinitely. Some day men may wish to "find" Him, and will discover that He is no longer "near."

God never fails an expectant heart. He has said, "They shall not be ashamed that wait for Me"; and, like a bright and blessed sunbeam on the page of inspiration, shines that weighty, soul-stirring sentence, "God rewards those who seek Him." He sent a Philip to the eunuch in the desert of Gaza. He sent a Peter to the centurion in the town of Caesarea. He sent a Paul to a seller of purple in the suburbs of Philippi; and He will send a message to the reader of these lines, if he is a really earnest seeker after God's salvation.