True Religion by Dudley Hall

You will seek me and find me. Jeremiah 29:13 (ESV)

True religion is to serve God in order to get nothing but more of God. He is the treasure we seek and when we find him we spend the rest of our time discovering what we have found.

The false religions of the world encourage worshippers to seek gods for the sake of what the gods can do for them. It is the default mode for this world’s thinking regarding religion. It slips into Christian doctrine easily as we find ways of prompting God to do what we require. We long for his gifts, for more faith, for better character, and more commitment, but somehow miss the treasure of his person.

Paul makes it clear in 1 Corinthians 13:1-3 that we can have all the before mentioned gifts, but without love for him we have nothing but shadows and pretense:

If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clinging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing.

Many are frustrated because they have sought some or all of these blessings, and yet they are not satisfied. They have sought to use God to get his stuff and have missed the great joy of being loved by him so deeply that they can’t stop loving him. We must remember that he needs nothing from us. He longs to see us so consumed by his love that we reflect him to an alienated world.

It is a good thing to set your heart to find him and nothing else. He is enough and to add anything to our list of desires is to indulge in idolatry. When we seek him, he stands in the path of our search and finds us.