1/23/2023
You were made for a purpose
Begin the new year with God
Let’s explore what it means to seek God’s face.
Introduction
This week we’ll be looking at the third necessary ingredient for experiencing a spiritual awakening: In 2 Chronicles 7:14, God calls his people to “humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways.” So today, let’s explore what it means to seek God’s face. What does this invitation mean for us in this time and place in history?
Scripture
Psalm 63:1 ESV
Devotional
I love putting together puzzles. I’ve never been extremely fast at them, but still it’s one of my favorite ways to spend time with friends and family. One critical rule of jigsaw puzzles that makes the entire experience work is this: a piece is made for only one place in the puzzle. It’s what makes assembling a puzzle so rewarding.
The same is true of our souls. We were made for one specific purpose: intimacy with our Maker. God created us in his image and likeness so we could experience a personal relationship with him that nothing else in creation can know. From the first moments in the Garden of Eden to today, he longs for the kind of intimacy that fathers have with their children (1 John 3:1) and husbands with their wives (Ephesians 5:25–32).
This truth led to a phrase commonly attributed to Blaise Pascal in his collection of writing fragments called the Pensées. He said there is a God-shaped emptiness in each of us. Pascal’s full observation was actually even more profound. And even more relevant to our souls today.
Pascal was born in 1623 and was a true genius. He wrote an essay on geometry at the age of seventeen that managed to make even René Descartes jealous. Two years later, he developed the first digital calculator. He also invented the syringe, created the hydraulic press, and laid the foundation for the modern theory of probabilities.
But his understanding of human experience was just as brilliant as his scientific expertise. For instance, he observed that “all men seek happiness. There are no exceptions. However different the means they may employ, they all strive towards this goal. The reason why some go to war and some do not is the same desire in both, but interpreted in two different ways. The will never takes the least step except to that end.”
He also asked, “What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace?”
His answer to this question was profound: “This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words, by God himself.”
Pascal concluded: “God alone is man's true good, and since man abandoned him, it is a strange fact that nothing in nature has been found to take his place.”
David agreed when he prayed: “O God, you are my God; earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you; my flesh faints for you, as in a dry and weary land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1).
If your soul is feeling thirsty and faint today, maybe the very thing you need is time in the presence of God. Connect with him today as we spend time in guided prayer.
today’s devotional is written by Jim Denison
Prayer
1. Reflect on the fact that you were made for intimacy with your Maker.
“He made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us” (Acts 17:26–27).
2. Would you say you are experiencing personal intimacy with God? Would he agree? If not, ask the Holy Spirit to show you anything blocking your relationship with your Father, confess what comes to your thoughts, and step back into intimacy with your Lord.
“Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).
3. Ask the Spirit to help you choose intimacy with your Lord as your first priority each day. Settle for nothing less than a transformative personal relationship with your Father.
“You have said, ‘Seek my face.’ My heart says to you, ‘Your face, Lᴏʀᴅ, do I seek’” (Psalm 27:8).
Worship
Go
St. Augustine observed, “To fall in love with God is the greatest romance; to seek him the greatest adventure; to find him, the greatest human achievement.” Knowing God intimately is the purpose you were made for, a fact that is just as true for the people you know as it is for you.
How can you extend God’s invitation to intimacy with those around you today? Set an example with a life filled with passion for your Lord. Then ask the Spirit to use you as a catalyst for such renewal in the lives you influence.
Spiritual awakenings begin with personal awakenings. May that be true of us and those we know, to the glory of God.
Extended reading: Psalm 63
Spiritual awakenings begin with personal awakenings. May that be true of us and those we know, to the glory of God.
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