PUCKETT: God, where are you?
Published 9:09 am Monday, October 15, 2018
If you were seeking for God, where could you find him? The question seems pensive but, in reality, all of us are seeking for God because God himself, the creator, declared in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men.”
So, regardless of what one might think, there is an inborn propensity to ask the question, “God, where are you?”
We take a walk, look into the sky, ask God where he is, and, typically, get no audible or visible answer. With no tangible results thus far, we might conclude God is what you make of him, so we begin to manufacture whatever we think God ought to be. When that exercise fails, we take the next step and decide that, if there is a God, He will not respond to me, so I will just be my own god.
Sadly, that is where most people end up — either with a god of their own design or with the god most loudly declared by those around them.
The problem remains, in that we still do not have that close, intimate, meaningful relationship that our inner being craves, and that we, deep down, know is out there somewhere.
When you get serious in your search for God, you might stumble across the Bible. The Bible is God’s story and is told in a remarkable way.
Most of the Bible is about people and their interaction with God. Some of the stories are good and some not so good in that the result turned out less than desirable for some people. You will not spend too much time in the Bible before you come across the central character, Jesus.
Jesus was a man who lived about 2,000 years ago. His life would be considered non-descript by the casual reader. He never owned more than the clothes on His back, grew up in a family, and had some close friends, but never rose to any position of prominence among people of influence. We do find Jesus among the poor, the downtrodden, the sick and diseased—those whom society was leaving behind.
One thing that will be apparent, as you follow your study of Jesus, is that He said He was the Son of God. Most people rejected that statement even though He proved who He was by many miraculous signs and wonders. Once you get past the public controversy about Jesus, you find that he was gentle, kind, caring, listening, etc. — everything you would ever want in a person. The closest followers of Jesus abandoned everything to be with Him, so there must be something there.
If Jesus is the Son of God and was thoroughly revealing Almighty God while he lived as a man, what more could you want in a God?
Jesus did not “fix” everything while he walked on the earth, and He is not necessarily “fixing” everything now, even though He promises to do exactly that in the future.
Here is another proof that God can be found: Those who have met Jesus acclaimed him as the son of God and savior. They have experienced such a deep peace in their inner being that they declare with certainty that they have found God!
If you meet one of those people, ask them about God. They can give you directions.
Dan Puckett works with road team operations at Life Action Ministries in Buchanan, Michigan.