He that diligently seeketh good procureth favour: but he that seeketh mischief, it shall come unto him.
The book of Proverbs is a collection of ancient wisdom sayings, many attributed to King Solomon of Israel, who ruled around 970–930 BC and was celebrated for his wisdom. This proverb makes a simple but penetrating observation about human nature and moral orientation: what you actively look for tends to be what you find — and what finds you in return. The person who genuinely pursues good — in their intentions, their actions, and how they treat others — tends to attract goodwill and favor. But the person who goes searching for ways to harm, to scheme, or to exploit will find that same spirit eventually circling back to them. It is not a promise of instant reward; it is a description of the kind of person you become over time and the world you end up inhabiting.
God, show me what I am actually looking for when I walk into the day. When I am hunting for fault, for leverage, or for ways to protect myself at someone else's expense, interrupt that. Teach me to genuinely seek good — in the people I like, and especially in the ones I do not. Amen.
Here is a question worth sitting with: what are you actually hunting for when you walk into a room? We all carry a default lens. Some people scan for threats. Some for status. Some for what is broken. Some for what is possible. Proverbs says this orientation is not just a personality quirk — it is a trajectory. The person who genuinely seeks good tends to find goodwill waiting. Not always immediately, and not always in the form expected. But the searching shapes the finding, and over time, it shapes the searcher. It would be easy to read this as a karma formula — be good, get good things back. But that misses the point. The proverb is an observation about character and what it does to a person over time. If you are constantly looking for the angle, the loophole, the way to come out ahead at someone else's expense, you begin to see every relationship as a transaction and every person as a means to an end. That is a kind of poverty. Think about the hardest relationship in your life right now. What would it look like to walk into it genuinely seeking their good — not your advantage, not vindication — just good?
What does 'seeking good' actually look like in practice — is it primarily about intentions, about visible actions, or about some combination of both? How would you know if you were genuinely doing it?
Think of someone in your life who consistently seems to find goodwill wherever they go. What do you notice about how they approach people, and what could you learn from them?
This proverb suggests a moral reciprocity built into the fabric of life. But what about situations where people pursue evil and seem to prosper, or where genuinely good people suffer? Does that tension complicate this truth for you, or does it sit alongside it?
How does the internal orientation you bring to a conversation — searching for fault, for competition, or for genuine good — affect the people closest to you, even when they cannot see what you are doing internally?
Is there a specific relationship or situation this week where you could deliberately choose to seek good rather than seek advantage or self-protection? What would the very first concrete step actually look like?
He who diligently seeks good seeks favor and grace, But he who seeks evil, evil will come to him.
AMP
Whoever diligently seeks good seeks favor, but evil comes to him who searches for it.
ESV
He who diligently seeks good seeks favor, But he who seeks evil, evil will come to him.
NASB
He who seeks good finds goodwill, but evil comes to him who searches for it.
NIV
He who earnestly seeks good finds favor, But trouble will come to him who seeks evil.
NKJV
If you search for good, you will find favor; but if you search for evil, it will find you!
NLT
The one who seeks good finds delight; the student of evil becomes evil.
MSG