“Boo!You found me”

Have you ever experienced that feeling of knowing someone was looking for you? Let’s face it, if someone is looking for us, they must want us for some reason.

Now if that’s the police, that’s probably not something we look forward to BUT if it’s that Publisher’s Clearing House guy, with roses and champagne, who only knocks on your door when your hair is perfect, your makeup is amazing, your teeth have just been whitened, well…you see the difference.

That example is a case of two extremes. Most of the time it’s just people looking for something far less extreme.  If you’re a mom and a wife, someone is looking for you because you know everything.  You know what’s for supper, what is the square root of 36, where the shoes are.  If you’re the boss, someone is looking for you because you are the problem solver.

Did you know the Bible tells us there are two who are looking for you, and each of them has their own motive? It’s another case of two extremes. Let’s look at that.

1 Peter 5:8 tells us to be sober and vigilant because we have an enemy roaming around looking for someone to devour. He is referred to “as a roaring lion”. That plants a picture in our minds of a hungry, powerful beast fully intending to consume us as his meal. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think I look like a filet mignon, although there may be some evidence of bacon wrapped around my outside. But notice…the enemy is “as” a roaring lion. He is not actually a lion, but he’s typically loud like a roaring beast. Especially in our heads. He says the things that we are going through are big, and dangerous and we are powerless to do anything about it. We may as well surrender to him to be eaten because we are too weak to defeat him. Our minds are a breeding ground for mole hills who long to become mountains if left to their own devices.  So he’s looking for us to toy with us, torture us and ultimately consume us.

Ah, but there is another one roaming, looking for us. 2 Chronicles 16:9 says “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him.”  Now how HUGE is that? God Himself has His eyes searching to show Himself strong on our behalf. Notice the different motivations of the two who search for us. We are important to one so that he can destroy us for himself and we are important to one so that He can show Himself strong on our behalf.  Our God says we may be weak, it may be dangerous, but He is powerful and therefore there is no need to surrender to the other. (Insert Rocky theme song here). Our God knows that His strength is made perfect in our weakness.

But…and isn’t there usually a but? that’s not the end to the verse in 2 Chronicles 16.  “Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars.” That verse ends with a judgment of war. Seems rather contradictory. (Change theme song) So we back up a bit to find out what happened to cause this decree and in doing that, we find ourselves at the door with the Publisher’s Clearing House guy while we’re in our coffee-stained jammies, knots in our hair and morning breath, only to discover they had the wrong address.

The earlier verses in that account are where the man of God came to the king who had messed up by trusting a king instead of trusting God. He reminded him that the time before that, by trusting God, the king had obtained victory over a much larger army that had come against them (roaring and seeking to devour) but this last time the king thought he’d handle it himself. Choices matter and most of us know they usually have long-range effects.  In my lifetime, at least, some of my foolish self-made decisions produced “wars” for decades. Self-promotion leads to self-protection, when all the time God was, and is, looking to show Himself strong on our behalf, to provide His wisdom and His protection.

Now that we know there are two looking for us, with two different motives, it comes down to our choice of which one to let find us. I don’t know about you, but I’m going to jump from behind that tree and into the eyes of the Lord, yelling.  “Boo! You found me.” He will keep me from being devoured. He is my Prize.