1. The Seeker Comes First

We hear a lot of talk about people seeking God, or a higher power, or something along those lines. Maybe you’ve felt that pressure yourself: find your way back, and get right with God.

But what if we flip the script? What if the real question isn’t whether we’re seeking God, but whether God is the one who seeks?

I believe that is the gift of grace we see all through Scripture.

Start at the very beginning. Adam and Eve eat the forbidden fruit, and the fallout is immediate: shame, fear, death. And then God arrives in the garden and asks a question: “Where are you?” (Genesis 3:9). God is the one seeking. And He doesn’t stop at the question. He clothes them with garments of skin (Genesis 3:21). He asks, and then He covers.

Centuries later, Israel abandons God again, and God sends their enemies to discipline them. And yet listen to what He says:

“For thus says the Lord God: Behold, I, I myself will search for my sheep and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock when he is among his sheep that have been scattered, so will I seek out my sheep, and I will rescue them from all places where they have been scattered on a day of clouds and thick darkness.” (Ezekiel 34:11-12)

Notice the words: I, I myself. God does not say, “If they want Me, they’d better come looking.” He does not say, “They must find Me and appease Me.” He says, “I am seeking.”

Now, you might be asking, “But how do I even know there is a God?” Paul tells us God has made Himself known:

“For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:19-20)

Creation tells us He is there. But creation alone can’t make a heart want Him. Just a few verses earlier, Paul says people suppress the truth (Romans 1:18). And in Romans 3, he is blunt about where that leaves us:

“None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God.” (Romans 3:10-11)

That’s hard to hear. It’s not that we’re merely lost and a little lazy about it. Scripture says we were dead in our trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1). And the dead don’t go looking for the One who gives life.

Seeking Gid is not our natural inclination.

That is bad news. But it sets up the best news there is.

2. Jesus Came to Seek

If we don’t seek God, and He seeks us anyway, then what does that look like? It looks like Jesus.

In Luke 15, Jesus tells parables about a lost sheep and a lost coin. In both, the owner drops everything and doesn’t stop until what is lost is found. Look closely at what the lost things do: nothing. The coin didn’t roll back to its owner. The sheep didn’t find its own way home. They were found because someone went after them.

In John 10, Jesus calls Himself the Good Shepherd, and He says: “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). He doesn’t simply call out and hope. He lays down His life for the sheep (John 10:11), and He even says, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold” (John 10:16). He seeks people who don’t yet know they belong to Him.

In John 4, He tells the woman at the well, “The hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him” (John 4:23). Again, Jesus is telling us: God is seeking.

But the verses I most want us to hold onto are these two. First, Luke 19:10:

“For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.”

This verse comes right after Jesus calls Zacchaeus down from a tree. Zacchaeus thought he was the one on a search, climbing up to catch a glimpse of Jesus. But Jesus looked up and said, “I must stay at your house today.” Zacchaeus was curious. Jesus was seeking.

And second, Mark 10:45:

“For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

A ransom is a payment made in someone’s place. Hold onto that word, because it tells us what the seeking cost.

3. The Rescue Mission

This is the whole storyline of Scripture. God created all things, including us. We rebelled and brought sin and death into the world. But God was not content to leave it there.

He came looking, and He covered our shame. And though there were consequences, He never gave up His plan to gather a people to Himself by covenant. He called Abraham and made promises. When Abraham’s descendants became a nation and ignored Him, they faced the consequences, and still God restored them. All through history, as we have ignored Him, wandered from Him, and rebelled against Him, He has kept on pursuing.

Ultimately, He sent His Son, a Son who sought, served, and gave His life.

Why? Because sin is rebellion against an infinitely holy God, and it deserves His just judgment. The cost of sin is death, and someone had to pay it. Our own death could never cover it, because we are the guilty ones. Only one who was perfect could. So Jesus stood in our place and bore that judgment for us.

And He did more than die in our place. He lived the perfect life we never could, and He credits that to our account so to speak. As Paul puts it, “For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). He paid the ultimate price, the most expensive price there is.

Then Jesus called His first disciples. He called the crowds. And He sent His people out with the same news: the Seeker has come, and He has paid it all.

So here is what we need to see. God is the ultimate seeker. He has taken the initiative. He has carried out the rescue mission. He has paid the full cost of it. And that mission continues until He returns.

And He will finish what He started. Paul says, “He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ” (Philippians 1:6). Jesus says of His sheep, “No one will snatch them out of my hand” (John 10:28).

A Word to You

If you belong to Christ, you did not find your way here by being good enough. “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). He found you, and He will not lose you. Rest in that today.

And if you’re not sure where you stand, and something in you is stirring toward God, don’t hear that as you finally getting around to seeking Him. Hear it as the Seeker, already at work. Jesus’ invitation is still the same: “Repent and believe in the gospel” (Mark 1:15). Come to Him.

Scripture quotations are from the English Standard Version.

AI Disclaimer. All content is original. AI was used for research, fact check, editing and formatting. Graphic is AI generated.