The other day, I suggested a better way to read scripture is to find what is there, to search for what God intends to reveal to those who seek. God accommodates in His time when it comes to those who wish to find Him and to know Him. There is another place He wishes us to search beyond the pages of His word.
Scripture is a diverging path. Follow it, and we not only find about our Lord, but we also find out about ourselves. In the finding of that self, there is but the revelation of what is missing. Then, the question arises—what do we do about it?
Our discovery of what is not there can be frightening when we live life in relation to God. This is good news. Anyone who lives in the sight of God, whether it be our gaze toward Him or His eye on us, finds in the living the stirring with which God wishes to disturb us toward faith.
There are some who choose to ignore it, to hide it, and even to turn away from it. No matter the choice, the ignoring, the hiding, the turning, all admit a life of discord. This person may say nothing is there, that he does not need God, but there is always somewhere, and something is always there. Denial is another form of vanity.
I knew a man who thought himself to be good. Indeed, he was. In word and deed, no fault could be found in him. I knew another, a scoundrel by all accounts, who drank alcohol excessively, cheated his friends until he had no more, and chased every selfish desire within his reach. But this man thought it a very sad thing that he could not be anything but bad. There was a third man who spent his time denying God by every possible means. Every theory agreeing with him, he chose.
The danger each encountered was the discomfort in not finding that part of himself God had placed there to be found, that part formed in Him by God, the true self. Of the three, the scoundrel was closest to finding it because he knew himself to be lacking. But none of the three found God. For no one ever finds God, only the truth about himself, and in the finding of self, God is there to claim him as His own, finds him, no, has already found him and waited for him to discover what God placed there. And there is the image of God, the character of God.
Sadly, some never find it. More, some never look. If we search, we will find, frightening though it may be at first. Truth can never be false, only honest and sobering. Those who face it, accept it, and choose to be changed, chance becoming sons of God. And when we know God has found us, we are free to live without what the world holds. God is enough.