” And he made from one man every nation of mankind on the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and boundaries of their dwelling place,” that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us.

Did you ever wonder why people want babies? Probably not. the reason seems obvious to most people–we want babies to love them, and to be loved by them.  
God’s reason for creating us is much the same.  God made human beings so he could have children, not only for Him to love but to love Him back.
Before we think of how we can love God more, we should understand how much He loves us.

Acts 17:26-27 tells us why God created us. He created us to love him back as he loves us.
Seeking God is how we love him back.  Love is a yearning to be with another.  When we seek God, through whatever way we seek Him, we are loving him.  We love him through
We seek Him in the appreciation of knowledge, beauty,  peace, and many other ways.  Love does not always mean just feeling something, but also an orientation to seek the thing we love.

Paul makes it clear here, that God is not hard to find.

Seeking God is a little like setting off in a rowboat on a lake to seek for fresh water to drink. His presence is all around us if only we see could recognize Him.

Neither is it hard to find love.  God is love, and He is all around us.  “In Him, we live and move and have our being.”  To find Him is to find love.

God has not rejected you. Nor has he stopped loving you because you have made mistakes or committed sins. His love remains constant.  Once we have recognized that we were created for God to love and that He is constant in His love for us, only then will we seek Him and find Him.

Loving God isn’t something we do with the mind alone, though. It requires experiencing that love with our whole being. So for the next two weeks,  we encourage you to find new ways of experiencing the love of God, so you will want to seek Him and find Him.
 

Nicholas Herman was born into a peasant family in the Lorraine region of France in the early Seventeenth Century. Due to his extreme poverty, the only occupation open to him was the military.  He joined the French army in 1635 and fought in the Thirty Years War–a brutal conflict between Catholics and Protestants.  He was wounded left lame for life.  After the war, he tried many different occupations, and failed at all of them.  It was then that he felt a call to become a monk.  He joined a Carmelite monastery in Paris and took the name “Brother Lawrence.”   Since he could not read or write and was unable to do heavy labor,  he was employed as a kitchen worker and a shoe mender.

Brother Lawrence never complained–in fact, he was the happiest monk in the monastery.  While other monks sought closeness to God through long hours of prayer, fasting and repentance,  Brother Lawrence lived in a constant state of joyfulness with God.  This led people in and out of the monastery to hunt him for spiritual advice.  Since he could not read or write, other people wrote his words down as he dictated them.  Later, his words were put into a little volume called The Practice of the Presence of God which is still in print today. Brother Lawrence discovered the personal experience of God’s love through the day helped him to stay in God’s presence.  He said:

  “The difficulties of life do not have to be unbearable. It is the way we look at them–through faith or unbelief–that makes them so.  We must be convinced that the Father is full of love for us and that He only permits trials to come our way for our own good. . . Let us occupy ourselves entirely in knowing God. The more we know Him, the more we desire to know Him.  As love increases with knowledge, the more we know God, the more we will truly love Him.  We will learn to love Him equally in times of distress or in times of great joy.

Sit comfortably in a quiet place.  Take notice of what your body is doing.  Put your arms around yourselves and notice any tensions in your body and relax them.  Focus your attention on your breathing, and breath slowly in and out a few times.  As you do, think what a gift it is that God has allowed you to breathe, and to feel the sensations of your body.

Draw a deep breath, hold if for a few seconds, and let it out slowly. As you do, say “God, thank you for the breath of life.”   Wrap your arms around yourself and hug yourself.  Say “Thank you, God for my arms and torso.”  Open your eyes and see what is before you, give thanks and say “Thank you God for my eyes and ear.”
Every part of you was given as a means for celebrating him, and a means for experiencing his love and life. Celebrate the miracle of God’s creation that you truly are.

Good, Good Father–Chris Tomlin

Your love Defends me–Matt Maher

Come to the Quiet (Psalm) 131– John Michael Talbot