“Presence” is a common translation of the Hebrew word “face.” Literally, we are to seek his “face.” But this is the Hebraic way of having access to God. To be before his face is to be in his presence.
But are his children always in his face? Yes and no. Yes in two senses: First, in the sense that God is omnipresent and therefore always near everything and everyone. He holds everything in being. His power is ever-present in sustaining and governing all things.
And second, yes, he is always present with his children in the sense of his covenant commitment to always stand by us and work for us and turn everything for our good. “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:20).
But there is a sense in which God’s presence is not with us always. For this reason, the Bible repeatedly calls us to “seek the Lord... seek his presence continually.” God’s manifest, conscious, trusted presence is not our constant experience. There are seasons when we become neglectful of the Lord and give him no thought and do not put trust in him and we find him “unmanifested”—that is, unperceived as great and beautiful and valuable by the eyes of our hearts.
His face—the brightness of his personal character—is hidden behind the curtain of our carnal desires. This condition is always ready to overtake us. That is why we are told to “seek his presence continually.” God calls us to enjoy continual consciousness of his supreme greatness and beauty and worth.
This happens through “seeking.” Continual seeking. But what does that mean practically? Both the Old and New Testaments say it is a “setting of the mind and heart” on God. It is the conscious fixing or focusing of our mind’s attention and our heart’s affection on God.
1 Chronicles 22:19 KJV: Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God; arise therefore, and build ye the sanctuary of the Lord God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord , and the holy vessels of God, into the house that is to be built to the name of the Lord.
Colossians 3:1-2 KJV: If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. [2] Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
This setting of the mind is the opposite of mental coasting. It is a conscious choice to direct the heart toward God. This is what Paul prays for the church: “May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ” (2 Thessalonians 3:5). It is a conscious effort on our part. But that effort to seek God is a gift from God.
We do not make this mental and emotional effort to seek God because he is lost. That’s why we would seek a coin or a sheep. But God is not lost. Nevertheless, there is always something through which or around which we must go to meet him consciously. This going through or around is what seeking is. He is often hidden. Veiled. We must go through mediators and around obstacles.
The heavens are telling the glory of God. So we can seek him through that. He reveals himself in his word. So we can seek him through that. He shows himself to us in the evidences of grace in other people. So we can seek him through that. The seeking is the conscious effort to get through the natural means to God himself—to constantly set our minds toward God in all our experiences, to direct our minds and hearts toward him through the means of his revelation. This is what seeking God means.
And there are infinite roadblocks that we must get around if we want to see him vividly, and so that we can be in the shinning light of his presence. We must run every spiritually dulling activity. We must run from it and get around it. It is blocking our way.
We know what makes us essentially sensitive to God’s appearances in the world. And we know what blinds and dulls us and makes us not even want to seek him. These things we must move away from and go around if we would see God. That is what seeking God involves.
And as we focus our minds and hearts Godward in all our experiences, we cry out to him. This too is what seeking him means.
*Isaiah 55:6 KJV: Seek ye the Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near.
Job 8:5 KJV:If thou wouldest seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty.
Seeking involves pleading and calling. O Lord, pull back the curtain of my own blindness. Lord, open my eyes, O lord, have mercy and reveal yourself. I long to see your face.
The great obstacle to seeking the Lord is pride.
Psalm 10:4 KJV: The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God : God is not in all his thoughts.
Therefore, humility is essential to seeking the Lord.
The promise to those who seek the Lord is that he will be found.
1 Chronicles 28:9 KJV: And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the Lord searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.
And when he is found, there is great reward.
Hebrews 11:6 KJV: But without faith it is impossible to please him : for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
God himself is our greatest reward. And when we have him, we have everything. Therefore, “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually
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