While using the search engine on my computer and not coming up with the answer I was looking for, this thought came to me, In the very core of our beings a "search engine" exists.
You see I was trying to find the truth regarding a certain subject. I needed to separate the facts from fallacy - there's a lot of that in cyberspace. Please, just the truth! I've been tempted to scream at the computer screen.
Haven't you ever wished you could just click a button and have your world fall into place with all the right answers? I have.
I have come to believe we all have, deep within us, an "engine" driving us to find something that makes us feel worthwhile, meaningful or complete. It's inborn. It's undeniable. Are there any who truly have no craving for a purpose in their life? I don't think so. I believe it's a God created drive within us that cries out for fulfillment.
We can see it in friends, neighbors, colleagues, the local grocery clerk; all wanting their life to have meaning - ask them. How many do you suppose would say, I'm looking for a meaningless life. Yet, each one, according to their own circumstances, would have a different definition of what fulfills life...just as there are myriad items that can be typed into a search engine window.
I have found, for the most part, we look to relationships for meaning and fulfillment. I am confident we all have examples of utter failure in that department. Yet few of us have completely given up, exited the human rat-race and sequestered ourselves away in a cave in the remote mountains of some vast wilderness in order to avoid another relationship failure - thought about it maybe. Human contact, to whatever degree we take it, remains a common desire. Within the very nature of our being there is something deeper, a craving for more than just intimate human relationships; a desire for connection with something or someone beyond what our senses are able to comprehend. I believe we are looking for truth.
The Spiritual Connection
And again, according to the nature of human experience, there are numerous ways we seek to find this connection this truth - most having to do with our physical nature and needs. We seek to fulfill through the physical what can only be fulfilled through the heart, the spirit. And that becomes like pouring water into a bottomless well. Impossible to fill. Over time we will begin to feel hopeless in our pursuit. Eventual disappointment is inevitable. The search engine of our heart keeps coming up empty. There is only one result which fulfills the need. One answer, one truth.
Looking for Truth
I find the Internet a fascinating thing. It's like electricity. The evidence that it works is there yet I can't "see" it, making it difficult to grasp exactly how it works - the effects are there - I click on links, information pops up on the screen, answers are found. However I must beware, the Internet is full of misinformation. How do I know what is true? There are many voices in cyberspace wanting to be heard but not all speak the truth.
An act of Faith
By faith we Google! expecting some type of result. Connecting to this vast invisible web is an act of faith. We can't see it, touch it, taste it....you get the idea. Yet we can connect with it because we see the results. Connecting to our inner spiritual search engine is a bit like typing a word onto the line of an Internet search engine. We must have faith the connection will be made. But there are many voices.
One Truth
When trying to make that spiritual connection with God there are many opinions and deceptions but only one truth. By nature there can only be ONE truth. Everything else can only be opinion or deception. I've found truth in the world to be a fluid thing - constantly changing and subject to interpretation based upon desired results. I simply don't understand that line of thinking. For truth to be reliable it must never change or else it can't possibly be true! Like gravity - if I were able to change it by my own whim how could YOU depend upon it?!
Something to Trust
My next statement will be the jumping off point for many of you. To trust requires faith. God has promised He will never change nor will His word. He says what He means and He means what He says. AND, He says His word is truth; trustworthy, reliable and unchanging. When the search engine of our heart seeks truth, God will be there as a result every time.
The Challenge
Just as gravity can be tested over and over again with the same result, I challenge you to test God - His word - to be true. He was so willing for us to understand Him to be true He came in human form to prove the truth of His love for us. The truth of God, the truth we need and seek, is JESUS. If you seek truth look to Jesus - God's truth in human form. Open the Bible and read how God represents Himself as truth.
Where to Start
If your inner search engine has been coming up empty with no satisfying results, consider what Jesus said of the Bible, God's word is truth (John 17:17), and what the Bible says about Jesus, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:1). There you will find your fulfillment, purpose and truth.
1 John 5:20
And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us an understanding, that we may know Him who is true; and we are in Him who is true, in His Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God and eternal life.
