Pursuing Christ预览

Seek His Face

I love this verse from the Psalms where King David engages in dialogue. There seem to be three people in the conversation – firstly David who speaks to God, and then David who speaks to his own heart. David says in other places, ‘Bless the Lord O my soul’. He has this internal conversation that I believe is key to the pursuit of God.

God calls in ways that we can understand it is Him. This is most often and most clearly through His written Word, the Bible, but also through preaching and teaching, worship, godly conversation, dreams, and even through nature, etc.

I did not come to this understanding easily or automatically, but slowly and tentatively. I started wondering if it was even possible that I could ‘hear’ God’s voice. But I distinctly remember where I was and when I was challenged almost 40 years ago by this particular verse of scripture to pursue God more fervently and more closely. Interestingly, I cannot remember all the steps that brought me to the place now where my heart seeks the nearness and closeness of Jesus, to not only hear the tone of His voice but to understand His instructions and to know Him more fully.

Somehow when we let our hearts get involved, God responds and leads our hearts to Him. God calls us to ‘seek His face’. This is a call to intimacy and knowledge. It is a call that He initiates, nurtures and fulfils. God is still calling us in closer. James 4:8 (TPT) puts it this way – ‘Move your heart closer and closer to God, and he will come even closer to you.’

Written by JOHN SCOTT