尋求上帝Seeking After God
[每日靈修] 11/14/2018, 駱鴻銘編譯
你有多少次聽過基督徒說到（或者從你自己的口中聽到），「某某還不是基督徒，但他正在尋求」？這是基督徒之間共通的說法。這種觀念是：到處都有人在尋求上帝。他們的問題在於就是無法找到祂。祂正在和人玩捉迷藏。祂是難以捉摸的。
在伊甸園裏，在罪進入世界之後，誰躲藏起來呢？耶穌來到這個世界尋找並拯救失喪的人。耶穌不是那個躲藏的人。上帝不是逃犯。我們才是忙著逃跑的人。聖經宣告，惡人雖無人追趕也逃跑（箴廿八1）。正如馬丁路德所說：「異教徒聽見葉子的沙沙聲就顫抖。聖經一貫的教導是墮落的人一直在逃離上帝。」
人不會尋求上帝。他們尋求只有上帝才能給他們的好處。墮落人類的罪是這樣的：人在逃離上帝的同時，也在尋求來自上帝的好處。我們天生就是逃犯。
聖經一再告訴我們要尋求上帝。我們從這些經文中得出的結論是：既然我們蒙召要尋求上帝，就必定意味著，即使在我們墮落的狀態下，我們也有道德能力去尋求。但這些經文是在對誰說話呢？在舊約的情況下，以色列人蒙召去尋求主。在新約聖經中，信徒蒙召要尋求天國。
活在神的面光中（在神面前禱告）：
你是在尋求上帝可以賜給你的好處，還是僅僅尋求上帝？
進一步研讀：
賽五五6 當趁耶和華可尋找的時候尋找祂，相近的時候求告祂。
太七7 你們祈求，就給你們；尋找，就尋見；叩門，就給你們開門。
啟三20 看哪，我站在門外叩門，若有聽見我聲音就開門的，我要進到他那裡去，我與他，他與我一同坐席。
Seeking After God
How
many times have you heard Christians say (or heard the words from your own
mouth), “So-and-so is not a Christian but he’s searching”? It is a common
statement among Christians. The idea is that there are people all over the
place who are searching for God. Their problem is that they just haven’t been
able to find Him. He is playing hide-and-seek. He is elusive.
In
the Garden of Eden, when sin came into the world, who hid? Jesus came into the
world to seek and to save the lost. Jesus wasn’t the one who was hiding. God is
not a fugitive. We are the ones on the run. Scripture declares that the wicked
flee when no man pursues. As Martin Luther remarked: “The pagan trembles at the
rustling of a leaf. The uniform teaching of Scripture is that fallen men are
fleeing from God.”
People
do not seek God. They seek after the benefits that only God can give them. The
sin of fallen man is this: Man seeks the benefits of God while fleeing from God
Himself. We are, by nature, fugitives.
The
Bible tells us repeatedly to seek after God. The conclusion we draw from these
texts is that since we are called to seek after God it must mean that we, even
in our fallen state, have the moral capacity to do that seeking. But who is
being addressed in these texts? In the case of the Old Testament, it is the
people of Israel who are called to seek the Lord. In the New Testament, it is
believers who are called to seek the kingdom.
Coram
Deo
Are
you seeking the benefits God can give you or seeking after God alone?
Passages
for Further Study
Isaiah
55:6
Matthew
7:7
Revelation
3:20
