As we begin the year setting goals and resolutions, what we often forget, is the need to set our hearts aright. What are we searching for this year?
"The love that we have longed for,
The peace we've searched to find,
The hope that we have hungered for,
The joy that's joy divine
Jesus all we need is all you are"
Recently, someone asked me what my resolutions for 2020 were. And I said: "To act not out of fear but out of faith/courage, and to always choose growth"
She probed more: do you have more concrete, specific goals?
Initially, that made me think, was my goal, not good enough? But on retrospect, no, I would choose not to make task-oriented goals because those will be broken, because the specific tasks we are called to take on will change in this year.
But what I wanted to set aright, to set straight for myself as I started the year, was how I would go about living 2020: hence I set goals that were about the principles, that would undergird my decisions.
Over the last 3-4 weeks of 2020, God has been revealing that to live for Him would entail:
(A) To Seek Him
(B) To Follow Him
and 2020 will indeed be a journey of unpacking what this would mean.
"O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is; My soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me.
Psalms 63:1 , 8"
(A) To Seek Him
Many years ago, we read of the story of 3 men: Solomon, David and Daniel - and what is inspiring was how they chose to set their heart and soul on seeking the Lord: despite the toughest of circumstances (Daniel), despite sin (David), and even in the best of circumstances (Solomon).
Undergirding the heart/attitudes of all 3 men were these principles:
1. We need to Set our Heart and our Soul to Seek the Lord
"Is not the LORD your God with you, and has He not granted you rest on every side? For He has given the inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land has been subdued before the LORD and His people. Now set your heart and soul to seek the LORD your God. Get started building the sanctuary of the LORD God, so that you may bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD and the holy articles of God into the temple that will be built for the Name of the LORD.” - 1 Chronicles 22:18-19
2. We need to Seek the Lord for who He is
What we tend to do is to Seek God for something that he can give us: in a sense, that's very transactional.
At a recent bible study, what was shared was that the incident of the golden calf was so grievous, because it was about man, trying to make visible the invisible God, but by making the invisible God take on an image of the golden calf.
This was so grievous because God was preparing to reveal Himself by sending Jesus Christ, who took on human flesh.
"Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. " - Romans 1:22-23
"Can we instead, choose to seek and find our satisfaction, wholly in God alone, and in how he chose to reveal himself in Jesus?"
May we seek the LORD and His presence, and His glory, as Moses did in Exodus 33:
Exodus 33 - The Promise of God’s Presence
12 Then Moses said to the Lord, “See, You say to me, ‘Bring up this people.’ But You have not let me know whom You will send with me. Yet You have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found grace in My sight.’ 13 Now therefore, I pray, if I have found grace in Your sight, show me now Your way, that I may know You and that I may find grace in Your sight. And consider that this nation is Your people.”
14 And He said, “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.”
15 Then he said to Him, “If Your Presence does not go with us, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how then will it be known that Your people and I have found grace in Your sight, except You go with us? So we shall be separate, Your people and I, from all the people who are upon the face of the earth.”
17 So the Lord said to Moses, “I will also do this thing that you have spoken; for you have found grace in My sight, and I know you by name.”
18 And he said, “Please, show me Your glory.”
19 Then He said, “I will make all My goodness pass before you, and I will proclaim the name of the Lord before you. I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.” 20 But He said, “You cannot see My face; for no man shall see Me, and live.” 21 And the Lord said, “Here is a place by Me, and you shall stand on the rock. 22 So it shall be, while My glory passes by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock, and will cover you with My hand while I pass by. 23 Then I will take away My hand, and you shall see My back; but My face shall not be seen.”
3. In all our Searching & Seeking, we must open our eyes to See God's hand
"O taste and see that the LORD is good, blessed is the man that trusteth in Him" - Psalm 34:8
"To You, O Lord, I lift up my soul. O my God, I trust in You;" - Psalm 25:1