You can’t follow God without God. Even these food laws could not be followed without the desire to be near to God. What would be their motivation for staying away from certain foods if they didn’t care about being in God’s presence? I’m sure many didn’t care enough to be in God’s presence and follow these food laws, and there were consequences for them, given by God. Today, there are still many who don’t desire to be in God’s presence, and some of those people even go to church, but they aren’t looking for God. They are looking for peace, or comfort, or community, or purpose. All of those are indeed found in God, but it’s God we need to be seeking, not those things. 

I understand the challenge I’m describing, trust me. What I can tell you is, you will desire Him more when you sincerely seek Him because when you sincerely seek Him, you will find Him, but it starts with believing that He’s better than ANYTHING this world has to offer, because anything this world has to offer was made by someone so much greater.