“I’m not sure I agree with that statement.” The conversation was starting to get interesting. My Men’s Group began a study of one of my favorite books, The Pursuit of God by A.W. Tozer. Tozer isn’t widely read by today’s hip generation. The language is a little archaic by modern standards. It takes longer to plumb the depths than most current Christian literature. One of my brothers was puzzled by the first chapter challenge, “Following Hard After God.” Many Christians fail to grasp the concept.

Some Christians believe “knowing God” is an ethereal concept, out there somewhere on the periphery of life on earth, just out of reach, unknowable, beyond the grasp of man. This is, at best, a juvenile concept, evidence of a lack of depth or biblical insight. From the beginning pages of Scripture, we see God seeking relationship with man. In the Garden He called, “Adam, where are you?” God was not lost — Adam was, for he violated the only restriction God had imposed on them. God told His people, Israel, they would be captives in a foreign land because of disobedience, “But from there you will seek the LORD your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deuteronomy 4:29 ESV). God is not playing hide and seek with man. He created us in His own image so we might have intimate fellowship with Him.

The problem is not with God but with fallen man whose concept of God is not worthy of Him. He will not respond to such condescension. It is a prevalent concept to seek God’s hands and not His face. We seek God for what He can give and not for Who He is. This does not mean God does not care for fallen man. He has endured great pain and loss to bridge the gap between His righteous standard and sinful man. It cost Him His one and only Son. In Faith Beyond Reason, Tozer had this to say about men’s unworthy concept of God: “God is not a railway porter who carries your suitcase and serves you. God is God. He made heaven and earth. He holds the world in His hand. He measures the dust of the earth in the balance. He spreads the sky out like a mantle. He is the great God Almighty. He is not your servant. He is your Father, and you are His child. He sits in heaven, and you are on the earth.”

What God is seeking are men (and women) who seek to know Him in His exalted state. “For thus says the One who is high and lifted up, who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, and also with him who is of a contrite and lowly spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly, and to revive the heart of the contrite’” (Isaiah 57:15 ESV). That is the heart that God desires to be found by. Speaking through Jeremiah God told His people, “Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD” (Jeremiah 29:12-14a ESV).

To pursue after God is to have the heart desire Moses displayed. The more Moses learned about the character of God, the greater the attraction, until he cried out, “Show me Your glory” (Exodus 33:18). God honored his request. A magnet will pull a piece of metal toward it once the metal is in closer proximity. Our burning hearts are the metal and God is the magnet. As we move closer to Him, He pulls us toward Himself. Hear what Jesus says about those who come to Him: “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:28-30 ESV). I am ready to be “magnetized!”

What say ye, Man of Valor?

Semper Fidelis!