The Call to Worship

When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, O LORD, I shall seek.”    Psalm 27:8

Seek – You will never find God by accident.  Jacob learned that lesson when he spent the night in the wasteland.  God found him!  “Accidental” encounters with God are only human descriptions of our insensitivity to God’s presence.  Accidents are not part of God’s frame of reference.  But deliberate seeking certainly is.

Jesus told us to seek.  “Seek first the Kingdom” and “Seek and you will find.”  Jesus knew the strength of biqqesh.  So did David.  He was anxious to seek God’s face. 

And God is delighted when we seek Him.

“Intense, personal effort to obtain something earnestly desired that is not close at hand.”  Does that describe your inquiry of God?  Do you come into His presence with thanksgiving because He asks you to seek Him?  You and I are invited into God’s presence.  It is an incredible privilege; an almost unimaginable honor, to be asked to converse with the Creator of the universe.  Who would spurn such an invitation?   And what would the King think of those who ignored such a request?

David, a king himself, knew what it was to be called into the presence of the King of kings.  His response is immediate, humbling and deliberate.  “I shall seek!”  When you call, Lord, I will not hesitate.  I will not check the daytimer to see how I can fit in my appointment with You.  I will not ask for a few minutes to finish my current tasks.  I will come, now, with open hands and a confessing heart, with tears of joy, that You, O Lord, would even invite me.  I will rush to worship You.  Nothing will impede my desire.

What enormous insults we cast at the Creator when He beckons us to seek Him!  The pettiness of our chronos fixation and our affluent stupor become justification for refusing the gracious request of the most holy God. 

“Lord, forgive us for our blind insolence.  Do not withdraw Your call because we have acted as fools.  Bid us again, that we might seek You with contrite hearts.  Whisper our names, and we will come running.”