Luke 2:25-30

Matt Summerfield encourages us to reach out to God wherever we're at in our faith journey

This is good news. But there's even better news than that because this story begins because God has come looking for us.

It might seem like a paradox but the God worth waiting for is actually the God who comes looking for us.

Vincent Donovan was the first missionary to the Masai tribe. His challenge was to help the Masai people understand the story of Jesus in their own culture. And so he would say to the Masai people things like ...

"We are pursuing God like a lion pursues its prey. We are like the lion. We are trying to get God. We are trying to find God. We are pursuing God like a lion pursues his prey".

But one day he was surprised when the chief of the village said to him...

"You told us of the High God, how we must search for him, even leave our land and our people to find him. But we have not done this. We have not left our land. We have not searched for him. He has searched for us. He has searched us out and found us. All the time we think we are the lion. In the end, the lion is God"

When you search for God, when you dare to find God, what you discover is that God has been there all the time - God has always been with you, God has always loved you, God has always cared for you...

Theologian Tom Wright once said...

"The point about the Christian faith is not so much that we are ignorant and need better information, but that we are lost and need someone to come and find us, stuck in quicksand waiting to be rescued, dying and in need of new life".

This year I want to encourage you from this story of Simeon. With these two simple thoughts...

Firstly, God is worth waiting for, he always keeps his promises, reach out to him and as you reach out to him you'll discover...

Secondly, that he's been with you all the time. He searched you out first. He loved you first.

Let me encourage you to reach out to God, wherever you're at in your faith journey.