Seeking after God - Isaiah 55: 1-9

I recently had someone ask me what the busiest time of the year was for me as a pastor, and without missing a beat I replied Lent. This is the time of the year when we all should be slowing down and reflecting upon God, yet sometimes it seems like we are just running from one thing to the next without really having time to seek the face of God.

Yet that’s exactly what today’s scripture passage invites us to do. To seek God’s face and be filled. Isaiah is speaking to a group of exiles, trying to bring them hope and proclaim God’s salvation to them. He is speaking to those who are becoming discouraged being in a foreign land amongst people who do not believe what they believe. And to these people who yearn for God to save them, the prophet proclaims, “everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.” Come seek after God and be filled. 

I attended a small Christian college a few hours from here, which required attendance at chapel three times a week. Usually we had speakers and sang hymns together or celebrated Holy Communion, but one service I remember in particular was praying through song. We spent our hour together singing and reflecting on what we had sung in silence. One of these songs of prayer was called “Invitation Fountain” and the lyrics had a profound impact on me. “Let all who are weak, all who are weary. Come to the rock, come to the fountain. All who have sailed on the rivers of heartache, come to the sea, come on be set free!” Friends, the invitation to come to the waters and seek after God are just as much extended to us today as they were to the people of Israel. And that is truly what the season of Lent is about, seeking and finding. Realizing that God’s ways are above our ways. Stopping and sitting in the silence listening to the voice of God. To cease striving for the things that cannot last and do not truly satisfy. 

Whenever I hear this text from Isaiah my mind goes to the Samaritan woman at the well who encountered Jesus one day. She listened to him talk about this water that will satisfy so you will no longer be thirsty. God is offering us that water still. The water that quenches our very spirits, from everlasting to everlasting. Yet, all to often we reject what God is offering us in our haste to get to the next thing. Or we don’t realize how truly thirsty we are. We forget that what God is offering us is truly the best. Offering us living water from the fountain of life that will not run dry. 

For when we run from one thing to the next looking for satisfaction, looking for truth, looking for meaning, we will never find what we are looking for. Never find the water that fills our spirits. The water that is freely given and can be freely received. For that water can only be found in the presence of a Holy God. The one whom the prophet tells us to seek after. May we allow God to draw near to us this Lenten season. May we repent of all of those times that we have neglected what God has offered us. May we seek after the one who invites us to come.