Celebrate!Sample

Passion for God’s Presence The Lord promises His people “a future and a hope” earlier in this passage. But this promise is based on a passion for His presence. The word “search” suggests an earnestness that borders on desperation, a close pursuit of God with diligence. The passionate pursuit of anything seems foreign to our modern culture that cloaks itself in a carefree nonchalance. But God’s Word shows us the desire of His people to seek Him. Psalm 84:2 declares, “My soul longs, yes, even faints for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God.” There is no discovery of the Lord and His delivering power for those who do not passionately pursue it. The pressure of a sinful world and the unrelenting yearning of our flesh deny entry into the courts of the Lord to those who carelessly attempt to saunter in. But for those whose hearts are aflame, there can be no force of flesh or devil that can prevent our finding the Lord’s grace, bringing us “a future and a hope.”