Why Does God Make It So Hard for Us to Find Him?

Have you ever wondered that? Why does God make it so hard for us to encounter him in the first place? We spend so much time as Christians searching for a close encounter with God. Why is it so hard? I mean, if He really wants us to know him like He says (Jeremiah 29:13), why doesn’t He just physically manifest Himself and say, “Here I am!”?

There are many reasons. First and foremost: God is God and He can do whatever He wants. When you create the universe, you get to make the rules. We may not like God’s rules, but we’re in His universe. When we create our own universe, we can make up our own rules. Until then, we need to pause for a moment and remember our place.

Secondly, there are several times when people ask God that same question, and He replies, “You can’t look directly at me, for you will die.” God’s holiness and majesty is so overwhelming that if God just showed up, our sinful, fragile bodies would literally not be able to take it, and we would die. So God isn’t withholding Himself because He’s being selfish or distant. It’s more because He’s protecting us from death. God is more awesome and more majestic and more other than we could ever possibly imagine.

Lastly, there’s a joy in the journey. Whenever you find something you’re looking for, or whenever you find that long lost friend, or that treasure you’d searched high and low for, there’s an incredible amount of satisfaction. God gives us the desire to discover, and we’re wired to experience extreme satisfaction when we find what we’re looking for.

2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter; to search out a matter is the glory of kings. Proverbs 25:2

There have been thousands of years of recorded history, and we’re still discovering new things about God’s creation. One of the highest honors of humanity (the glory of kings), is to discover the wonders that God has woven throughout all creation. It’s our privilege, our glory to search out and discover all that God has laid out for us, including God Himself. Enjoy the journey of discovering God!