Tread

I love dirt trails.  

Not necessarily the perfectly manicured ones that are clearly the result of recreational master plans. Those are nice, but the ones that really draw me are those that wind through woods and fields simply because someone—(or many “someones”)—has walked the path time and again, carving tracks from repeated use.

In Scripture, we’re told to seek the Lord continually.

For example, 1 Chronicles 16:11 says, “Seek the LORD and his strength, seek his face continually.” Psalm 105:4 is similar: “Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore.” And in Lamentations 3:25, we read, “The LORD is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.” 

These are just a few of many examples. But one of the words translated “seek” in these verses is reminiscent of those well-tread trails. 

That word is daras. And it means “to tread or frequent; usually to follow (for pursuit or search); by implication, to seek or ask; specifically to worship.” One lexicon uses the phrase to “beat (a path).”

Beating a path—or carving a trail—requires repeated and frequent treading on the same spot. I won’t form a new trail by walking through the woods once a year. No, I must tread the same path frequently. 

So it is with seeking the Lord. He wants our persistent following and pursuit. Returning over and over to His word, to prayer, to His presence. 

Seeking Him is a continual pursuit. But the reward is beyond measure, for it is Him! 

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” – Jeremiah 29:13