Skip to main content

Seek His Face

                 He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God. (Micah 6:8)


My heart says of you, “Seek his face!” Your face, Lord, I will seek. (Psalm

27:8)

 

          Last night I went to bed expressing heartfelt gratitude for the day. It was a busy day, but I got the things I’d scheduled done and made my way through a significant part of my To-Do list. I don’t think there’s anything wrong about thanking God for a day in which things go right, you get things done, or you find enjoyment. We should be thankful when those things happen.

          The first problem with this is that it’s easy to feel grateful when we get what we want. It’s also easy to start thinking that God is only acting on our behalf when we get what we want, or that things going right is God’s way of telling us that we’re doing what He wants. It’s easy to be thankful when we’re patting ourselves on the back.

          The second problem is that while we may define a “good” day in terms of what we accomplished, God seems to consider it a good day when we act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him. He considers it good when we seek His face – not His hand or His benefits. “Not my will, but Thine be done.” It’s about His glory, not ours.

          On days when things don’t get done, or aren’t as we like them, we’re like kids sitting at Grandma’s kitchen table, and dutifully saying, “Thank you for the brussels sprouts, Grandma.” We’re not thankful, and our focus is on the vegetables rather than on Grandma. We miss seeing her love because we’re too busy being greedy, selfish, covetous, or gluttonous.

           Years ago, I experienced something that should have taught me this more deeply than it has. I was at a retreat, and one of the features of the retreat was that people made bookmarks and cards that they strung with a piece of yarn. Others at the retreat put them on like necklaces, while I looked at each one and put it down, wondering what I was going to do with the worthless stuff. At various times, one person or another would ask, “Aren’t you going to put yours on?
          Each time, I think I said something like, “No, I don’t do that sort of thing.” It was silliness to me, and I didn’t want to do silly.

          Then God told me that those silly little things were tokens of the love of the people who gave them to me (whether they knew me or not) and in not putting them on, I was rejecting their gifts and their love. Tears rolled down my cheeks as I pulled them over my head.

          So, if today isn’t a pat myself on the back sort of day and God’s gift to me is brussels sprouts or bookmarks on strings instead of some accomplishment or desired gift, will I be as thankful as I was last night?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Think About These Things

                 Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. (Philippians 4:8) This passage is a major challenge for me. Like everyone else, I struggle to keep my thoughts from wandering off into the weeds, then wondering what possible benefits those weeds might have… Sigh. But as a writer, I have to delve at least a little into the ignoble, wrong, impure, unlovely, and debased. After all, there’s no story if everything’s just as it should be and everyone’s happy. As Christians, there are times when we need to deal with all the negatives, but that makes it even more important that we practice turning our minds by force of attention to what is noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent, and praiseworthy. It’s just too easy to get stuck in a swamp. With my...
1 comment
Read more

Higher Thoughts

  “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the  Lord . “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)           The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,   for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord      so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. (I Corinthians 2:15-16) If you read about the ancient gods of the various peoples, you’ll find that they think just like people. In fact, they think just like the sort of people we really wouldn’t want to be around. They think like the most corrupt Hollywood producer or, like hormone overloaded teens with no upbringing.   It’s embarrassing to read. I have a friend who argues that because God is not just like us, He is so vastly dif...
2 comments
Read more

Pure...

            The goal of this command is love, which comes from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. (I Timothy 1:5)   I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. (Revelation 3:15-16) I’m probably cheating - or mishandling the Bible, but earlier I was thinking about love being pure and purifying. And hatred being pure and purifying. And anger…joy…patience… fear… jealousy… courage…lust… and other strongly felt feelings, attitudes, and beliefs. Today’s verse brings purity and love together, so it’s the verse of the day, but it’s not really the focus. That means my motive for sharing it with you probably isn’t pure. As you read through my list, you   probably thought, “Yeah” about some, and “What’s she on?” about others. But consider how much hatred, a...
Post a Comment
Read more