Brief but interesting thoughts

"The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you." 2 Chronicles 15:2
(First, let me apologise for any incorrect references or changes in wording or verses that are only half complete that appear here in my blog. Many verses are coming from my Spiritual Vitamin jar, and I'm discovering that it has a lot of all three of those mishaps.)
This verse is one in which it is important to keep context in mind. 1 and 2 Chronicles are in the Old Testament, and are a sort of compiled history of the life of the Israelites. Basically God is using a prophet to remind Israel that their troubles are, in a way, their own fault. They turned to false gods and yet still expected protection from their own true God.
With that understanding, it's a little easier to talk about this verse. It's not saying that unless you spend the day praying and seeking God that your whole life will go wrong. It's not saying that if you do that you'll have everything you want. I look at it as an explanation for some of the bad things that happen in the world. As a whole, the population of the world has forsaken God. Actually, let's just look at America. Even here we have forsaken God. He is all over our money (which is ironic, because some people "worship money") and we hear about him all the time, but I'd say (not statistically) that not even half of the population really seeks God. Lots of people go to church, but lots of people do it because they think they should. They think that the motions of church make up for the sins of the rest of the week. Now, don't get me wrong, if people are worshiping as they should then church does make up for everything we do wrong when it has a time for Confession and Absolution. But how many of us, when the Pastor allows a time for silence to reflect on our sins, are thinking "I'm hungry, what am I going to have for lunch? Oh, yeah, reflection. Um God? That probably wasn't good when I lied yesterday. But man did it save me some trouble..." The good news is that God is always merciful. Even when we can't think of all of our sins or when we've forsaken him for a while, he never says "That's enough, I'm done with you." He always offers grace to those that ask for it sincerely, no matter the price. His son Jesus paid every price on the cross, once for all, so that we will never be truly forsaken.