Mike,

You have such a gift for speaking truth.  And what an awesome truth it is - that not only is God present and real, but that He wants us to want Him!  And thankful that it's not 100 easy steps!! :)  Seriously, this is encouraging to me.   

You're a blessings,
Carol

I do like your breakdown of the verse into four objectives.  However, I think it might be interesting to consider this with Romans 3:10-12  "None is righteous, no, not one;no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one."  This pretty clearly negates the capacity of any human to accomplish the third and fourth steps and likely the first as well.  Not to despair, this news is good, and makes this even easier and more enjoyable!  In light of Romans, we stop trying (unsuccessfully) to accomplish those goals.  Rather, we simply enjoy letting God work each of these in us and praise Him for it.  Attempting to reach these goals by our own efforts would actually be a lost opportunity to glorify God and witness to His love and grace.    

Ok.  Thanks for your response...and further inquiry!
When you look at a face, you may see feelings, but aren't they rather changing or a manifestation of a changing mood?  Do we not know that God is the same and never changes?  Hasn't He revealed Himself to us in this way?
James 1:17-18
7 Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.
NKJV
In these terms, I think what the text is telling us is to find out "WHO IS THIS GOD?"  And further, "WHAT IS HIS WILL?"
1 Chron 16:11
11 Seek the Lord and His strength;
Seek His face evermore!
NKJV
1 Chronicles 16:7-36
Let the heart of those rejoice that seek the Lord, much more of those that have found him. Seek him, and his strength, and his face: that is, seek him by the ark of his strength, in which he manifests himself. 4. Let the everlasting covenant be the great matter of our joy and praise (v. 15): Be mindful of his covenant. In the parallel place it is, He will be ever mindful of it, Ps 105:8. Seeing God never will forget it, we never must. The covenant is said to be commanded, because God has obliged us to obey the conditions of it, and because he has both authority to make the promise and ability to make it good. This covenant was ancient, yet never to be forgotten.
(from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, PC Study Bible Formatted Electronic Database Copyright © 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All Rights reserved.)
Ps 105:4
4 Seek the Lord and His strength;
Seek His face evermore!
NKJV
Psalms 105:4

Seek the LORD, and his strength: seek his face evermore.

[Seek the Lord] Worship the one only Supreme Being, as the only and all-sufficient good for the soul of man.

[And his strength] Man is weak; and needs connexion with the strong God that he may be enabled to avoid evil and do good.

[Seek his face] Reconciliation to him. Live not without a sense of his favour.

[Evermore.] Let this be thy chief business. In and above all thy seeking, seek this.
(from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright © 1996, 2003, 2005, 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All rights reserved.)
Ex 3:14

14 And God said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM."
NKJV
Exodus 3:11-15

1. A name that denotes what he is in himself (v. 14): I am that I am. This explains his name Jehovah, and signifies, (1.) That he is self-existent; he has his being of himself, and has no dependence upon any other: the greatest and best man in the world must say, By the grace of God I am what I am; but God says absolutely—and it is more than any creature, man or angel, can say—I am that I am. Being self-existent, he cannot but be self-sufficient, and therefore all-sufficient, and the inexhaustible fountain of being and bliss. (2.) That he is eternal and unchangeable, and always the same, yesterday, to-day, and for ever; he will be what he will be and what he is; see Rev 1:8. (3.) That we cannot by searching find him out. This is such a name as checks all bold and curious enquiries concerning God, and in effect says, Ask not after my name, seeing it is secret, Judg 13:18; Prov 30:4. Do we ask what is God? Let it suffice us to know that he is what he is, what he ever was, and ever will be. How little a portion is heard of him! Job 26:14. (4.) That he is faithful and true to all his promises, unchangeable in his word as well as in his nature, and not a man that he should lie. Let Israel know this, I AM hath sent me unto you.
(from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible, PC Study Bible Formatted Electronic Database Copyright © 2006 by Biblesoft, Inc. All Rights reserved.)

God created us to have feelings and emotions, but I can't see the Biblical basis for KNOWING GOD or being restored in your relationship to Him by seeking His feelings or emotions.  I appreciate your honest and kind manner with which you inquired:  I am a fellow student and servant of God and am always seeking to be sharpened by the Word and others who abide in it.

Although this answer is insufficient in itself, it is a good representation of the basic ideas with which I explained in the first blog answer.

God bless you always, Brother.

"God is love" ~ We know this as three: Agape, Eros, Philos ~ I guess to determine the answer to this Q we should study these three kinds:  That would take some time to review, so I am going to leave that to you. 
To speak to the Q does God call Himself, or if "God is" I think these scriptures are good examples of Him actually describing "WHO HE IS," ~ yes, He actually is these.  Do I understand all of this, NO, DO I BELIEVE IT??? YES!!!
Rev 3:14-15

'These things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 
NKJV

Rev 19:11-12

11 Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And He who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and makes war.
NKJV

John 11:35-36

35 Jesus wept. 36 Then the Jews said, "See how He loved him!"
NKJV

John 11:35-37

11:35-37. Jesus' weeping differed from that of the people. His quiet shedding of tears (
edakrysen
) differed from their loud wailing (
klaiontas
, v. 33). His weeping was over the tragic consequences of sin. The crowd interpreted His tears as an expression of love, or frustration at not being there to heal Lazarus.
(from Bible Knowledge Commentary/Old Testament Copyright © 1983, 2000 Cook Communications Ministries; Bible Knowledge Commentary/New Testament Copyright © 1983, 2000 Cook Communications Ministries. All rights reserved.)

Could this also have been the disciples and followers of Jesus?  Of course!!!

Recently the simplicity of this scripture has spoken volumes to me.  I have been grieving the death of  Greg Laurie's son, Christopher.  I have understood grief over the reality of death because of our fallen world.  And, I grieve the loss for my friend, Greg & his family.
This verse came to mind when you asked me if I thought God was/is "cold/unfeeling/range of emotions?"  Of course I believe God has emotions, after all, He made us in His likeness and has given us as such.
However, in the context with which we are speaking, I do not think that seeking to know an emotional response from God is what we have been taught Biblically.  As you can see, the people misinterpreted Jesus's response to Lazarus' death...and I believe we too are subject to such misunderstanding.  I have yet to hear any teacher of the Bible instruct us from God's Word to seek God's emotions or feelings as a way of understanding, knowledge, or wisdom.
As I have stated before, God is Highly relational!  In this most intimate relationship, we care about pleasing or grieving His heart, but to do that I think we need to know, as stated before, "WHO HE IS AND WHAT HE COMMANDS," and do that!
John 14:15-18

15 "If you love Me, keep My commandments.  16 And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever —   17 the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.  18 I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.
NKJV
Again, this is still not all encompassing, but a good frame of reference.
I too believe in considering "the whole counsel of God" in determining all matters in as much as we are prepared to give an answer.
I think too, it is very easy to make a simple issue complex by our tendency to over intellectualize things... ;)
Thank you for the Q.  Good discussion:  Seasoned with dignity & respectfully given.
~T.

...and a comment - not to you Tonya, but to those who are offended whenever someone asserts that it is easy to come to God (or return to him)... why? Why do you have such a hard time accepting that God welcomes sinners, welcomes anyone with a sincere desire to approach him?

I know, I know... It's the "steps". Everyone has a hard time with the idea of steps to anything. 12 steps to freedom from addiction! 5 easy steps to success! 10 steps to a better you!! Ugh!

The idea here with the steps (other than the fact that Solomon/God passed along 4) is, are these four points progressive, like steps? I see them that way, obviously......

This blog is kind of old, I know, but this verse has really stuck in my mind. (It better have, I memorized it!) It's a good one to meditate on!