Seeking God: The Surprising Truth You Might Be Missing

Zacchaeus would never call it seeking God, but here he is, gripping rough bark with both hands as it catches on his good robe.

He’s a grown man, a wealthy one, and he is up a sycamore-fig tree like a kid hiding from his chores. Below him, the road to Jericho is packed with shoulders and elbows. He’s too short to see over any of them, so he did the only thing he could think of and climbed.

Nobody on that road likes him. He collects taxes for Rome, and everyone knows he takes a little extra for himself. He’s used to being avoided. He’s not used to being this curious.

He doesn’t have a plan. He just wants to see. Whatever he’s heard about this teacher, it has gotten under his skin, and he can’t make it go away.

So he holds on, heart pounding, and waits.

Is This Really Seeking God?

Here’s what I keep wondering about that scene: what exactly was Zacchaeus doing up there?

If you’d asked him, I doubt he’d have called it seeking God. He’d have said he was curious, or that he wanted a look. It was a small, slightly embarrassing impulse.

I think that’s the part we miss. We picture seeking God as something grand: fasting, long prayers, a mountaintop. Many of us feel like we’ve never really done it. We have a tired, half-formed I wish I knew you better and we’re not sure it counts.

So does it?

What the Bible Says About Seeking God

Start with a promise that has comforted people for a very long time. In Jeremiah, God says, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

It’s easy to read that line as a test of intensity. All your heart, and I’m not sure I’ve got that much to give. But look at the structure: seeking and finding are paired. It doesn’t say you’ll seek for years and maybe get a vague sense of something. It says you’ll find.

And “all your heart” is about direction, not perfection. Zacchaeus didn’t have all the answers. He had a tree and a question, and he pointed his whole self toward Jesus. That is what the verse is asking for.

Then comes the part of the story that stops me every time. Jesus reaches the tree. Out of that entire crowd, he stops, looks up, and says, “Zacchaeus, come down immediately. I must stay at your house today” (Luke 19:5).

He knew his name.

Zacchaeus thought he was the one doing the looking. He was being looked for. Jesus says it plainly a few verses later: “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).

Isaiah puts it this way: “Seek the Lord while he may be found, call on him while he is near” (Isaiah 55:6). Notice the word near. We tend to picture God as far away, waiting for us to cover the distance. These verses suggest that He’s already close, and already walking toward us.

So maybe seeking God isn’t about climbing a tree to reach someone distant. Maybe it’s about noticing that someone has already stopped underneath it.

What Seeking God Might Look Like This Week

I don’t want to turn this into a formula. Zacchaeus certainly didn’t have one. But here are a few small ways to start seeking God right where you are:

1. Count the small impulses. That nudge to open a Bible, the song that made you tear up in the car, the odd feeling that you should call someone. You may have been seeking God all along without calling it that. This week, notice one, and follow it a little further than usual.

2. Give it ten unhurried minutes. No phone, no agenda, no need to feel anything. Read one short passage (Psalm 63 or Isaiah 55 are good places to start) and ask two simple questions: What does this say about God? What does it ask of me?

3. Pray the honest version. Skip the polished prayer. Zacchaeus didn’t have one either. Try something like: “I’m curious, and I’m tired, and I don’t know what I’m looking for. Meet me here.” God can work with that.

4. Expect to be found. Instead of asking, “Am I seeking hard enough?”, try asking, “Where might He already be looking at me?” Pay attention to people, moments and timing that seem a little too well placed to be coincidence.

5. Be ready to say yes quickly. Jesus told Zacchaeus to come down immediately, and he did. Luke says he “welcomed him gladly” (Luke 19:6). If you sense an invitation to forgive, to reconcile or to begin, don’t wait for a perfect moment. Zacchaeus’s whole life changed that same day, in his own front room.

Back Under the Tree

Let’s go back to the road to Jericho.

A crowd is murmuring. Someone near the front is already rolling his eyes. And a short, wealthy, much-disliked man is still gripping a branch, face flushed, hardly breathing, because someone has just said his name.

He thought he was looking for God. It turned out God was already looking for him.

You may be in a tree of your own right now: curious, a little embarrassed, not sure you’re seeking God the right way. Hold on to the branch.

Someone has already stopped underneath it.

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A prayer to close

Lord, I don’t always know how to look for You. But I’m looking. Thank You that You’re not hard to find, and that You were looking for me long before I started. Call my name today. I’ll come down. Amen.

Reflection question: What would seeking God look like for you this week, and where might He already be looking up at you?

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