Tag Archives: seeking God’s presence

Seeking More

One of a kid’s favorite games is hide and seek. Since we had some kids over recently, we encouraged them to play inside. The last one caught got to be it each time. On one occasion, the youngest player got to be it. After a few minutes of trying, she couldn’t find anyone. She was ready to quit. We encouraged her by setting a timer, offering hints and walking with her. She found no one. After the timer was up, we had her call out, “Marco!” The older kids responded, “Polo!” She began seeking again and was able to find them. I realized at that moment that each person has a different ability and threshold for seeking.

Hebrews 11:6 says, “And without faith living within us it would be impossible to please God. For we come to God in faith knowing that he is real and that he rewards the faith of those who passionately seek him” (TPT). Each of us are called to continually seek Him even after we’ve found Him. There are greater depths of Him to know beyond what we find on the surface at salvation. He’s not asking us just to find Him. We’re to know Him as well. We can’t just give up or stop seeking Him after salvation. We need to seek the different aspects of who He is because we’re going to need them as we go through life.

Psalm 105:4 says, “Seek more of his strength! Seek more of him! Let’s always be seeking the light of his face.” Seeking more of who God is should be a daily discipline for believers. Our personal revival starts with seeking these different aspects of who He is. When we go through dry times in our relationship with Him, the root cause in a lot of cases is that we have quit seeking Him. He wants to be found. He wants to reveal more if Himself to you, but you must move and seek Him. We have a promise in James 4:8 that says if we will draw close to Him, He will draw close to us. Seeking Him is the pathway to the closeness we’re looking for.

Photo by cottonbro studio on Pexels.

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word. 

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Seeking God’s Face

One of the things I enjoy doing is going to sports shows to get autographs. There are tables set up all over the place with autographs from just about any athlete on just about anything. It’s cool to look at those and remember those players, but I rarely buy anything on that side of the building. On the other side is a series of tables with athletes sitting at them signing autographs. You have to get tickets months in advance if you’re going to meet the person and get their autograph. For me, that’s the way to go. I love being able to say, “I met Clyde Drexler,” or “I met Craig Biggio and got him to sign this right after he got into the Hall of Fame.” I want to be present and meet the people who’s autographs I have.

The same thing goes when it comes to God’s presence. I love hearing stories of revivals in the past and the miraculous things that happened. I love conversing with people about what God showed them in prayer, but to me, it’s like window shopping at the sports show. I don’t just want to hear about someone else’s experience, I want to meet with God and be in His presence too. There’s a fear many people have of being in God’s presence I think. It’s like the Israelites when they left Egypt. God invited them into His presence, but they sent Moses instead. You and I can’t live or fully grow off of someone else’s experiences. We must learn to get into God’s presence ourselves.

Psalm 27:8 says, “When You said, ‘Seek My face [in prayer, require My presence as your greatest need],’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, O LORD, I will seek [on the authority of Your word]’” (AMP). God is asking us to seek His presence individually. There’s a cost associated with that. It’s going to cost you time that you could be doing something else. God wants to be first in our lives and to be our greatest need. Until each of us are willing to make Him our greatest need and are willing to pay the price, we’ll be window shopping off of other people’s experiences. Find time today to seek God. Put on some worship music, read your Bible, pray and listen. He’ll meet you there because if you seek, you will find.

Photo by Tima Miroshnichenko.

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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Getting In God’s Face

My son is competitive like most kids. He wants to be first everywhere we go. The problem is that he doesn’t always know where we are going. Sometimes when he gets a few steps ahead, I turn and he keeps going straight. I’ll usually make a noise to let him notice. He then runs over and tries to stay in front. With each turn, I remind him that I’m the one who knows where we are going, and that he should follow.

There are other times when he’s just trying to keep my attention. If I’m trying to do something, he’ll get in my face. If I direct my attention elsewhere, he moves to try to stay in my face. Sometimes it makes me laugh how hard he tries to get and keep my attention. The truth is that it’s a picture of how we are to be with God. Sometimes we forget to be like children, which is what Jesus told us to be like.

I believe God is looking for us to be in His presence. He’s not wanting us to be out in front of Him trying to guess where He’s leading us, and He’s not just wanting us to be somewhere in His vicinity. He wants us to go get in His face, and to be where He is looking. Psalm 116:9 says, “I walk in the Lord’s presence as I live here on earth!” (NLT) The Psalmist understood what God desires from each of us, and that is to walk in His presence.

The word “presence” in its original meaning, is the word for face. So to walk in the Lord’s presence is to walk where He’s facing. In order to do that, we need to be constantly looking at Him to make sure we are going the same way He is. We have to spend time in prayer throughout the day constantly grabbing His face and attention. It’s what children who love their parents do. God is not annoyed by us in trying to do this. He is honored when we walk in His presence.

Photo by Szilvia Basso on Unsplash

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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Walking In His Presence

My son is competitive like most kids. He wants to be first everywhere we go. The problem is that he doesn’t always know where we are going. Sometimes when he gets a few steps ahead, I turn and he keeps going straight. I’ll usually make a noise to let him notice. He then runs over and tries to stay in front. With each turn, I remind him that I’m the one who knows where we are going, and that he should follow.

There are other times when he’s just trying to keep my attention. If I’m trying to do something, he’ll get in my face. If I direct my attention elsewhere, he moves to try to stay in my face. Sometimes it makes me laugh how hard he tries to get and keep my attention. The truth is that it’s a picture of how we are to be with God. Sometimes we forget to be like children, which is what Jesus told us to be like.

I believe God is looking for us to be in His presence. He’s not wanting us to be out in front of Him trying to guess where He’s leading us, and He’s not just wanting us to be somewhere in His vicinity. He wants us to go get in His face, and to be where He is looking. Psalm 116:9 says, “I walk in the Lord’s presence as I live here on earth!” (NLT) The Psalmist understood what God desires from each of us, and that is to walk in His presence.

The word “presence” in its original meaning, is the word for face. So to walk in the Lord’s presence is to walk where He’s facing. In order to do that, we need to be constantly looking at Him to make sure we are going the same way He is. We have to spend time in prayer throughout the day constantly grabbing His face and attention. It’s what children who love their parents do. God is not annoyed by us in trying to do this. He is honored when we walk in His presence.

Photo by Jad Limcaco on Unsplash

Throwback Thursday is a feature I’m using to help build some margin into my schedule to pursue other writing ventures. Each Thursday I’ll be bringing you a previously written devotional that still speaks encouragement to us from God’s Word.

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Heart Condition

In high school, we had a guy on our basketball team that was 6’8” tall. Before one of our games, I told him, “Go out to the court while the other team is warming up. I want you to reach as high up on the net as you can and then stare down the other team for 30 seconds. After that, turn around and walk back here.” My hope was that the other team would take one look at him and change their game plan. I also wanted the psychological advantage before the game because I knew they would take one look at him and believe he was made for basketball. The truth was he rarely made it onto the court because his coordination hadn’t caught up to his growth spurt.

So many times we judge people by their outward appearance. We make snap judgements about whether we like them or not, whether they’re smart or good at a certain task. Many times we aspire to be like someone based on their appearance or how they present themselves on social media. While we look at how someone looks outwardly, God is more concerned with our hearts. David’s brother had the look of a king, but David had the heart God wanted in a king. If God hadn’t intervened, Samuel would have anointed the wrong man.

In 1 Samuel 16:7 God said, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (NLT). God wants you and I develop a heart that desires to know Him and serve Him. When we make it a priority to get our heart right, God opens doors that we’re closed. His blessings are not based on what we outwardly do, but by the posture of our heart. Spend time today seeking God’s presence in order to know His heart more. The more we know His heart, the more ours becomes like His.

Photo by Hush Naidoo on Unsplash

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Seeking God’s Face

One of the things I enjoy doing is going to sports shows to get autographs. There are tables set up all over the place with autographs from just about any athlete on just about anything. It’s cool to look at those and remember those players, but I rarely buy anything on that side of the building. On the other side is a series of tables with athletes sitting at them signing autographs. You have to get tickets months in advance if you’re going to meet the person and get their autograph. For me, that’s the way to go. I love being able to say, “I met Clyde Drexler,” or “I met Craig Biggio and got him to sign this right after he got into the Hall of Fame.” I want to be present and meet the people who’s autographs I have.

The same thing goes when it comes to God’s presence. I love hearing stories of revivals in the past and the miraculous things that happened. I love conversing with people about what God showed them in prayer, but to me, it’s like window shopping at the sports show. I don’t just want to hear about someone else’s experience, i want to meet with God and be in His presence too. There’s a fear many people have of being in God’s presence I think. It’s like the Israelites when they left Egypt. God invited them into His presence, but they sent Moses instead. You and I can’t live or fully grow off of someone else’s experiences. We must learn to get into God’s presence ourselves.

Psalm 27:8 says, “When You said, ‘Seek My face [in prayer, require My presence as your greatest need],’ my heart said to You, ‘Your face, O LORD, I will seek [on the authority of Your word]’” (AMP). God is asking us to seek His presence individually. There’s a cost associated with that. It’s going to cost you time that you could be doing something else. God wants to be first in our lives and to be our greatest need. Until each of us are willing to make Him our greatest need and are willing to pay the price, we’ll be window shopping off of other people’s experiences. Find time today to seek God. Put on some worship music, read your Bible, pray and listen. He’ll meet you there because if you seek, you will find.

Photo by Samuel Martins on Unsplash

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