24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man, 25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything. 26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, 27 that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, 28 for ‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
Acts 17:24-28 ESV
A rather hefty portion of scripture, but one serving to remind us we live to discover and learn God. Paul preaches to a crowd in Athens and tells them it is in Him we live, and in Him we move, and in Him we have our being.
In the places we have been set by God, allotted periods and boundaries of our dwelling places, we are to seek and find God.
Living in this world brings great temptation to adapt to the world's ways. As we come into the Kingdom of God, through our submission to Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, we begin a process of renewal. While our spiritual condition has changed from death to life, darkness to light, we find we must still be renewed in the Spirit of our mind. Eph. 4:23makes us understand that we must change the way we think. This comes only through the process of earnestly desiring the sincere milk of the word that we may grow by it, being transformed into the image of his dear son, Eph. 4:24.
All spiritual development is a discovery of God and we have been given this book, the Holy Bible, these exceeding great and precious promises that we might be partakers of His divine nature. To continually meditate on, Joshua 1:8; John 15:5; to renew our minds to the thoughts and ways of God, is a daily responsibility of the believer. Joshua meditated to observe and do what the word said. We too look into this perfect law of liberty to be doers, acting upon what we see. James 1:25.
Our verse today from Acts highlights the seeking and ‘feeling’ our way….
pselaphao (ψηλαφάω, 5584), “to feel or grope about” (from psao, “to touch”), expressing the motion of the hands over a surface, so as to “feel” it, is used (a) metaphorically, of seeking after God, Acts 17:27; (b) literally, of physical handling or touching, Luke 24:39 with
1 John 1:1; Vine’s Complete Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words
Daily, in every place we find ourselves, God is present, Deut. 31:8; Psalm. 46:1; Hebrews 13:5 and His desire is for us to seek Him, discover Him and finally move into living our lives out, through Him.
This is eternal life, life now and hereafter, forever, to know the Father and his son Jesus Christ. Our process of growth is to seek, find, and then live and move in the revelation we are given.
We find in the writings of John, a revelation, not only of a belief system in Jesus as the Son of God, but an intimacy of relationship. In his first epistle, John writes about what they have seen and heard and handled. He indicates His writing is so others can have the same joy they have experienced in knowing Him. 1 John 1:1-4
As we grow in our relationship, each day should hold the wonder of the discovery of God in some way for a believer.
I trust that on this Resurrection Sunday you will find some truth that our Father desires to reveal to you in and through His risen Son, bringing you Resurrection Life.