Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near. — Isaiah 55:6
During a recent walk through a local bookstore, I was admiring the variety of topics that the store carried. There were an enormous amount of fiction books, business books, religious books, and children’s books. Another section that caught my attention was the self-help books.
There was a long aisle of them, with about every possible subject you could imagine. You could find books for helping with a garden, building a home, working on a car, or many other unique things. Some of the largest selections that were there had to do with help for your life. These books were dealing with challenges in the home, difficulty raising children, managing grief and depression, and many other things.
Across the world, people are looking for help for all of these types of things in their lives. They need help managing difficult situations, relationships, work, money, and more. They are spending thousands of dollars searching for guidance and direction, when they do not realize that there is one that is able and capable to help no matter what they are facing.
Isaiah reminds us in this verse that we should seek the Lord. But the words of Isaiah come with a warning. He made the statement to call upon the Lord while He may be found and while He is near. God is an ever-present help for the Christian life. He wants to hear about our struggles, cares, difficulties, and challenges.
The warning is that we should not neglect the help that God can provide. Rather than looking all over the world for help, we should look for our help and answers in God. The world will try to fill our minds with answers that leave God out. We should seek answers that put God first.
When we find ourselves needing help and strength, God wants to help. We must seek Him and call on Him.