Your Face I Seek

Psalm 34:4

I sought the Lord, and he answered me;

he delivered me from all my fears.

I don't know what it is, but there literally is nothing better than resting in the presence of the Lord. It might have something to do with the fact that it gives me joy. It might have something to do with it giving me peace. It might even be that when I spend time with God, I tap into the original plan that the Lord had for us.

It's probably the last one that the plan of the Lord was to have relationship with us.

That might sound like a selfish idea, or even a me-centered mindset, but I don't think this is the case at all. I think it's simply awesome that God would even want to have relationship with me even though I sin over and over again further separating myself from God. I think it's awesome that the Lord would place this innate desire in my heart to seek God's face and His alone. To constantly search after and desire the Lord is my greatest desire. That's the Westminster Catechism: our chief purpose is to glorify God and enjoy God forever.

I know that I am going to sin. I know that I'm going to mess up. I know that I'm going to fall short of the glory of the Lord. I know that I'm going to not be the man that I am supposed to be.

But if I put God first, if I try, if I make an effort to find my identity in God, if I move closer to the Lord, if I allow the Holy Spirit to really work on me, then I know that God will do more than His part to meet me.

And I don't think that God simply meets us halfway. I think that every step that I take towards God, God takes two my way. I don't know how to explain it other than saying that God works harder than I do to create and establish relationship.

I think that my desire to meet God has been placed by God.

Let me try to explain that thought. If I do a study on humanity, then an overarching theme is that we are selfish. We do whatever it takes in order to further our own interests and desires. We do the work, and we want the reward. We climb on the backs of anyone and everyone in order to meet our deadlines. We use people as utilities in order to reach our goals. We are only looking out for ourselves. That's the bottom line. We only care about ourselves.

Then this amazing shift happens when we let God into our lives. It's not seeking our own desires, but seeking the Kingdom of God. What does that mean?

It means that we surrender. We relinquish. We let go. We remove our natural desire to succeed (I'm not talking about a "Protestant Work Ethic" here), and start chasing God and trying to spend more time with our Lord. It's the emptying of ourselves to be filled with the Living Water. It's the removal of anything impure in order for the Holy One to come and breathe on us. When we let go of ourselves and allow God in and really let God in, we can allow God to work on us to create and form us into God's likeness. We need God to remove anything ungodly. We cannot become followers of God without God. That would simply be moralism, which is good but not godly. If we really want to have a godly life, then we have to allow God in.

Any desire to spend time with God is ultimately rooted in the fact that God created us and wants to redeem us.

This longing in my heart means that I am simply responding to this deep, deep desire to hang out with God. It means that I remove all the pride in my life in order to say to God, "It's your face, I seek."
In order for me to spend time with God, I have to get rid of all the things that separate me from God's presence. I have to confess my sins. I have to admit that I am a half-hearted follower of my Messiah. That I mess up. That I'm not nearly as good as the person that God designed me to be. That I sometimes am a lot more human than I need to be. That I am a slave to sin. "To err is human."
I don't want to settle for myself.
I don't want to settle for the status quo.
I don't want to just say that it's whatever that I sin.
I want more of God and less of me.
My soul longs for the God who rescues, redeems and creates in me a clean heart. My soul longs to enter into the throne room of the Most High God and to join in with the angels singing "Hosanna in the highest."
I just want to spend more time with God because I really do love the Lord.
He's been so, so good to me.