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Those who live in the presence of Elyon, the Supreme God who is above all other Gods, that person will remain forever under the protection of the Almighty God.
Psalm 91:1 (SJH)

I was pretty jazzed about God’s goodness and His promise in Psalm 91 after studying it recently…but I found myself jazzed about God with no practical way to get to the promise. In other words, He promises permanent rest and protection to those who live in His presence…but how in the world do I go from where I am now – visiting regularly, but losing that connection more often than I’d like to admit – to living in His presence – remaining there throughout the day? That’s the $64 million question.

And it’s one I’ve been meditating on and intentionally practicing lately so I wanted to follow up our study of Psalm 91:1 with some practical tips for living in God’s presence.

I have to caveat this blog – books and books have been written on this subject. This is a short blog. So I’m just covering some basics. My hope is that just a few of the basics will grab your heart and spirit and you’ll say “yes, I’ll commit to trying that for the coming month.” Because I can promise you, just reading this won’t help you stay in God’s presence. You have to practice it. Because we are pulled away from the Lord much too easily by this sinful world in which we live.

So pause to pray. Yes, right now. I’ll wait.

Confess to God your own unfaithfulness to Him and your desire to draw nearer. Tell Him that you want to live in His presence. Ask for His help. Ask the Holy Spirit to highlight those things in this list that best fit your situation or your personality. Or to bring to mind things not even on the list. Don’t forget to tell God that you love Him and are so looking forward to a closer relationship with him.

How do you remain in the presence of the Lord throughout the day? What activities or actions keep you in the presence of the Lord? As I’ve considered this question, it seems to me that they fall into three categories:

Do Things to Enhance the Relationship
That would include things like reading Scripture, praying, worshipping, serving others with the awareness that you are serving God. The key is to do them throughout the day.

• Do you reserve your Scripture reading time for early morning? Consider adding a “walk through the Psalms” time to your day – during your morning coffee break or after you finish your first major task of the day.
• Add worship music to your environment, either by playing it in the background or singing it to yourself.
• Do you have a “prayer closet” wherever you spend your day? If you’re at home, maybe there’s a corner you can relax in for just a minute or two several times throughout the day. Or maybe it’s at the sink where you rinse the dishes before they go in the dish washer. If you’re in your car, this is an easy one! Just be disciplined to spend some of your drive time praying, not just day dreaming or strategizing about your next meeting. If you’re at work, your prayer closet can be anywhere you’re alone. Be purposeful about visiting it for short prayers throughout the day.
• Regularly remind yourself of God’s goodness and faithfulness.

Do Things to Maintain the Relationship Throughout the Day

• Don’t ask “What Would Jesus Do?”, ask “Jesus, what would You do?” Read more about that here.
• Consciously give your day over to the Lord. After my Bible reading each day, I plan my day with my calendar and electronic To Do list in front of my. I have set a recurring task on my To Do list that says “A Prayer – What Should I Do Today?” “A Prayer” puts it at the top of my list (because my list is alphabetical). “What Should I Do Today?” reminds me over and over again that I’m not the one deciding my priorities. Every time I look at my electronic To Do list throughout the day I am faced with that reminder.
• Regularly “settle in” to God’s presence. My prayer/planning time with the Lord yields a short hand-written list of tasks and priorities for the day. I’ve recently started putting the words – “settle in” – at the top of my written To Do list. I see them every time I finish a task on my list. I am consciously working on including God when I transition from one task to another. I wish this came naturally for me. It doesn’t. But I am confident that God is faithful and as I regularly invite Him to plan my day and be a part of it, I will experience His presence more strongly.

Do Nothing to Cut Off the Relationship

• Live holy lives – flee from sin.
• Resist worry; practice faith instead. Worry instantly pulls you away from faith and into the hands of satan.
• Identify stressors and deal with them. When I recognize that I’m beginning to feel anxious, I consciously stop and breath in deeply as I remind myself of the goodness of God. Then I breath out slowly as I release the situation into God’s hand.
• Pray when you feel like complaining.

These things aren’t always easy, but they will yield a greater presence of God in your day. They will allow you to live in that secret place of His presence. And that’s a good thing.

If you have other ideas, share them. Leave a comment below or on our Facebook page.

⁵For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; ⁷and to godliness, brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness, love. ⁸For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:5-8 (NIV)

The phrase that grabs me in this passage is the title of this blog – “make every effort.” But before we get there, we have to deal with the beginning of verse 5. “For this very reason” the verse begins. What reason? Check out yesterday’s blog for more, but the synopsis is that God has given us everything we need so that we can participate in His nature and escape the corruption of the world. Whew! That’s quite a gift and quite a promise. And as a response to that gift, we’re to “make every effort.” Not because of an unpaid debt, although we clearly have one, but because of our appreciation for what He has done and our love for Him. He has given so much for us, we are to “make every effort” to live in the way that pleases Him.

That means living godly lives – faithful, good, self-controlled, consistent, kind, loving lives. During a recent study of this passage with a small group, someone asked if there was a logical progression to the characteristics we’re to display. I think there is, but I don’t think it’s absolute. The order they’re presented here makes sense to me… but God has a way of working outside the box. The point is that He is working and we should be responding to that working by making every effort to improve in each area.

Growth doesn’t happen simply from reading about it. It happens when we make a decision to respond to what we’re reading. It happens when we work toward becoming the person God wants us to be.

I love verse 8. It is probably one of my favorite verses in the Bible. It holds a promise that is important to me. If we possess these qualities in increasing measure they will keep us from being ineffective and unproductive in our knowledge of Jesus. I want my life to count for something. Possessing these qualities in increasing measure ensures that. They will keep me from being ineffective and unproductive. Let’s put it in the positive: They will help me to be effective and productive – they will help me to accomplish the purposes God has for my life.

I’ve been careful to reiterate the phrase “in increasing measure” each time I’ve cited the verse. That’s because I think we can get stalled out at any point and it’s at those times that we begin to lose our effectiveness. Paul repeatedly talks about the importance of finishing the race well. That only happens if we make every effort on to increase in our Christ-likeness an ongoing basis. When we retire from pursuing those qualities, we retire from effectively serving God. We lose our purpose. We become ineffective and unproductive.

But if anyone does not have them, he is nearsighted and blind, and has forgotten that he has been cleansed from his past sins.
2 Peter 1:9 (NIV)

Those who don’t have the qualities described in verses 5 through 7 are nearsighted and blind. We have forgotten what God has done for us. We’re no longer productive and effective. We’re groping around for a purpose and a plan. Lack of spiritual maturity blinds us. Growing in Christ brings vision.

We don’t want to be like that. Peter didn’t want the first century Christians to be like that:

¹⁰Therefore, my brothers, be all the more eager to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you will never fall, ¹¹and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
2 Peter 1:10-11 (NIV)

Oh friends – because growing in these qualities makes you productive and effective and not having them makes you nearsighted and blind, be all the more eager to make your calling sure. God is the One who has called us, “by His own glory and goodness” (see the previous blog for more on this), but we confirm that calling through the walking out of our faith – changed attitudes and behaviors. Continuing in Christ, we have a “rich welcome” waiting for us at the end of this road. A welcome that begins our eternal life in the kingdom of our Lord.

We can be nearsighted and blind – without a plan or purpose – or we can make every effort to grow in qualities that help us to become more like Christ.

Let me encourage you as Peter encouraged first century believers – make every effort.

Yes, I’d like to be one who radically trusts God…but my lifestyle doesn’t always reflect that. I have read this blog from ConversionDiary.com several times, and it’s become material for meditation in between readings.

The first habit – “They accept suffering” – is one that caught my attention. As a middle-class American, suffering isn’t high on the list of spiritual disciplines I practice…OK, it doesn’t even make my list. It makes my list of “things I’m trying to avoid.” What a radically different perspective these radical Christians had.

Yet what I see over and over again in people like Brother Yun is that they have crystal clarity on the fact that suffering is not the worst evil — sin is. Yes, they would prefer not to suffer, and do sometimes pray for the relief of suffering. But they prioritize it lower than the rest of us do — they focus far more on not sinning than on not suffering.
http://www.conversiondiary.com/2011/04/7-habits-trust-god.html

Read more about this habit and the other six here.

The 7 Habits of People Who Place Radical Trust in God has identified several habits I need to improve on. How about you?

Phil and I have been taking ballroom dancing lessons for about four months. Tonight is our first recital! Yes, I thought only children had dance recitals. Guess I was wrong about that. We’ll be dancing the rhumba and the waltz. Earlier this week I wrote about lessons from the battlefield and how they can be applied to our spiritual life. In honor of our dance recital tonight, I thought I’d share some lessons from the ballroom.

There are a few lessons our instructor, Michael, has been working on with us every single week. We’ve taken about twelve lessons and I don’t think a week’s gone by that he hasn’t mentioned all three of these things. And like our battlefield lessons, I find them applicable to my spiritual life. In fact, since I have someone harping on me about these lessons each week and we practice a couple of other times a week, these lessons are in the front of my mind and are serving as reminders of how I ought to live.

Lesson 1: Stand Tall

When you stand tall you command authority. You think and act differently.

Do you know who you are in Christ? We are many things, but I like the description in 1 Peter:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous light;
1 Peter 2:9 (NASB)

We are chosen by God, he has made us a part of His royal priesthood, and he’s given us a calling. What a privileged position we hold! Cherished by the creator of the universe! Knowing that ought to make us stand tall. There’s no slouching from insecurity in the King’s Kingdom. Yet when we are tempted to be downhearted, we can remember King David’s words:

But you, O LORD, are a shield around me; you are my glory, the one who holds my head high.
Psalm 3:3 (NLT)

We may be as Paul described – hard pressed on every side, perplexed, persecuted and struck down, but we are not crushed, in despair, abandoned or destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:8-9, NIV). Why? Because God is the lifter of our head. He is the one who holds our head high. I ought to be living as that royal priesthood, as a person for God’s own possession.

A person who lives like that doesn’t slouch. That person has a regalness about them. Not an arrogance, but a regalness.

And it’s not all about how we walk, there is a spiritual application of this that goes deeper. Spiritually, we ought to be standing up. When we face the enemy, we’re not to be worn down, defeated, expecting to lose, afraid of being seen.

No, we should be standing tall in confidence and command because we are God’s holy nation, we are His ambassador. We’ve been called out of darkness, given the assignment of proclaiming His excellencies, His supremacy, and His great love.

We ought to stand tall. Because God is the lifter of our heads.

Lesson 2: Follow the Leader

Oh, I’m not always good at this one. Phil lifts his arm indicating that I’m supposed to go under it for an underarm turn and I just keep dancing my little box step. I wasn’t ready. I didn’t recognize his lead. I just didn’t feel like doing it. I needed a break from the last step we did.

Except for the fact that sometimes Phil’s leads are a bit indefinite and Gods leads are always perfect, the rest is about the same. Sometimes I miss the lead. I wasn’t ready. I wanted to stay in my routine. I wasn’t paying attention to Him and missed the lead. Or I wanted to take a break from the last battle he put me in.

I did a search in the Bible on the phrase “Follow me.” One of the things that jumped out at me was Jesus’ calling his Disciples. He met Peter and said “Follow me.” He met Matthew and said “Follow me.”

He said this as he called another disciple:

²¹  Another disciple said to him, “Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”    
²²  But Jesus told him, “Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead.”
Matthew 8:21-22 (NIV)

And His message was the same to the rich young ruler:

²¹  Jesus said to him, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”
Matthew 19:21 (NKJV)

Follow me. That’s what God says.

If we move this command into the battlefield, there’s a good reason to follow Him. There’s a good reason not to take the lead away from Him – because it is His battle to win, not ours.

David knew this when he fought Goliath. He met Goliath with these words

“Today, all those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.”
1 Samuel 17:47 (NIV)

When we stop following, we put the battle into our own hands. When we stop following, we take the plan for the day and put it into our own hands. It doesn’t belong in our hands. It belongs in the Lord’s hands and He will give the victory

Lesson 3: It’s Not All About the Footwork

You know, I want it to be all about the footwork. Because I can get the footwork down. Slow, quick, quick. Slow, quick, quick. The footwork is the easy part. Michael is always telling us that the reason we take lessons isn’t to learn the footwork, we could get that from a video. The reason we take lessons is to learn style – to put the polish on the footwork.

What he’s talking about is adding passion to dance. Putting our feet in the right place at the right time is just a small part of dancing. An important one, but still a small one.

When we translate that into our walk with the Lord, we say that it’s not all about the fundamentals. The fundamentals are important – reading our Bibles daily, praying, serving, being thankful, worshipping, tithing, and many other things – they’re the fundamentals – they’re getting our feet in the right place at the right time. They’re very important, but it’s not all about the footwork – it’s not all about the fundamentals. It’s about the passion of the dance – it’s loving the Lord with our whole heart. It’s serving Him whole heartedly.

King David gave this advice to his son Solomon as he was handing over the plans for building the Lord’s temple:

“And Solomon, my son, learn to know the God of your ancestors intimately. Worship and serve him with your whole heart and a willing mind. For the LORD sees every heart and knows every plan and thought. If you seek him, you will find him.
1 Chronicles 28:9a (NLT)

That’s more than footwork. Learn to know your God intimately.

Lesson 4: It Takes Practice to Get it Right

We’re taking lessons because we want to know how to dance well. I’m shocked that we’ve spent the bulk of our lessons learning one dance. I would have guessed we could learn the rhumba in about three weeks. Yet here we are at week ten and we’re still learning the rhumba. The more we practice, the better we get.

The same is true in our spiritual life. Somehow we have the expectation that we ought to be good at it immediately. After all, we love the Lord – shouldn’t the rest come naturally. Uh – no. It didn’t for the Apostle Paul:

¹⁵I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. ¹⁶But if I know that what I am doing is wrong, this shows that I agree that the law is good. ¹⁷So I am not the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

¹⁸And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. ¹⁹I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. ²⁰But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

²¹I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. ²²I love God’s law with all my heart. ²³But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.
Romans 7:15-23 (NLT)

Yes, I don’t really understand it – I want my feet and my body to go one direction, but they repeatedly go the other way. Well, on the dance floor, it’s not that big a deal. But in life, much more so. Yet living the life God wants us to live doesn’t come naturally. Sinning comes naturally. Living in holiness takes practice and requires listening to the Holy Spirit. Don’t be disheartened when you don’t get it right the first time. Keep practicing!

4 Lessons from the Ballroom:

Lesson 1: Stand Tall
Lesson 2: Follow the Leader
Lesson 3: It’s Not All About the Footwork
Lesson 4: It Takes Practice to Get it Right

Let me encourage you, friends, to live out my ballroom lessons in your spiritual life. God is worth it.

There are many illustrations in the Bible about how we are soldiers for the Lord, a part of His army. And while it’s true that our battle isn’t against flesh and blood, but against powers of darkness, there are lessons we can learn from earthly battlefields. A friend recently pointed me toward a Facebook page for the military unit her son is a part of.

The world is a different place these days. I didn’t know that military units have their own Facebook pages! I was quite surprised to learn that, but in today’s world, Facebook is the way the world communicates and it can be a wonderful tool for staying in touch. In a recent post, the captain of the unit included as part of his update information about what’s called an “After Action Report” or AAR. “If done properly,” the Captain wrote, “the After Action Reports are not for the thin-skinned, but it is a big part of how we get better, and why our Army is so strong.” He then shared some of the points from a recent evaluation. As I read the update, I was struck at the value the process and his advice has for us as Christians seeking to serve our King. Hence, our lessons from the battlefield.

Let me say here that I am NOT in any way meaning to devalue what the men and women in our military are doing. Their battlefield is much more stressful and much more dangerous than any I’m in. Rather, it’s my desire to honor them as I take from their lessons and seek to learn from them.

Lesson 1: Evaluate to Improve

Our first lesson comes from the activity itself – we can’t improve what we don’t evaluate. In the Facebook post, the Captain wrote this: “days seem to be endless, yet gone in a flash….It’s been a slow blur.”

Well, I’m not on the battlefield, but I know sometimes – lots of times, actually – my life feels like that. Will this day never end? And then “How can it possibly be Friday again?” Days seem endless, yet they’re gone in a flash.

If we don’t purposefully step back and evaluate our lives, we’ll find that more and more days have gone by without making steps toward improvement, steps toward growth, steps toward becoming the person God wants us to be.

One of the times we do that is during communion. Paul wrote this about communion:

²⁷Therefore, whoever eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of sinning against the body and blood of the Lord. ²⁸A man ought to examine himself before he eats of the bread and drinks of the cup. ²⁹For anyone who eats and drinks without recognizing the body of the Lord eats and drinks judgment on himself.
1 Corinthians 11:27-29 (NIV)

God wants us to examine ourselves, to watch our behavior, to not take what Jesus did for us lightly.

King David knew that it’s not only self-examination that’s needed. We too easily deceive ourselves. King David asked the Lord to examine him:

²³Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
²⁴Point out anything in me that offends you,
and lead me along the path of everlasting life.
Psalm 139:23-24 (NLT)

If we’re to become more like Christ, we must examine ourselves and ask God to examine us.

Lesson 2: Stay Sharp

The Captain wrote this in his After Action Report: “How do we keep Soldiers and Leaders focused? How do we keep them from becoming complacent? Although we haven’t been doing this a long time, Soldiers get tired.  How do we prevent the “Groundhog Day” mentality from setting in, where every day or mission looks like the one before?  Or the dangerous mindset that occurs prior to a mission when Soldiers think that nothing has happened, so therefore nothing will happen.  This is when I worry about Soldiers taking shortcuts and being complacent.  Complacency kills, bottom line.”

It’s not so different in our spiritual life. No matter how long we’ve been a Christian, we can still fall. Scripture warns us:

⁸Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour.
1 Peter 5:8 (NLT)

We’re to stay alert. Satan prowls around looking for who is most vulnerable, easiest to attack and kill. Even Jesus wasn’t immune to attacks by Satan. In the desert, satan tempted Him three times. Jesus successfully defeated satan each time, and then Scripture says this:

When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time.
Luke 4:13 (NIV)

Satan is looking for an opportune time to attack us. Our responsibility is to stay sharp.

Lesson 3: Exceed the Expectations of Your Commander

Our military isn’t focused on just doing their job. They’re focused on exceeding the expectations of their commanding officers.

Do we have the same commitment to our Commanding Officer? Do we have the same commitment to our King?

Paul encouraged the Ephesians:

As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.
Ephesians 4:1

And to the Philippians he wrote:

Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. 
Philippians 1:27

Is our focus on living a life worthy of the One who gave His life for us? Is our focus on living a life that is worthy of the One who created the universe? Is our focus on living a life that is worthy of the One who lives us so, the One who is jealous for us and whose love is fierce and strong?

Lesson 4: Allocate Resources Properly

Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.
Psalm 90:12 (NIV)

Numbering our days aright means first remembering each morning that our time belongs to God. To squander it is to squander God’s resources. At breakfast last week my husband said “everything we have is stewardship” Are we using what we have in the way God wants us to use it? Phil was talking about cars and money. It also applies to time. Time, money, cars, talent, our home and food – they’re all included as part of the resources we’re to allocate properly. Lord, help us get better at it!

Four Lessons from the battlefield:

Lesson 1: Evaluate to Improve
Lesson 2: Stay Sharp
Lesson 3: Exceed the Expectations of Your Commander
Lesson 4: Allocate Resources Properly

They’re lessons meant to keep our troops sharp, focused, the best. They’re lessons we would do well to implement in our lives and our walk with the Lord.

Last week I shared some of the lessons God’s been teaching me while learning a new sport. Last week’s lessons were primarily lessons in humility and discipline. The lessons I learned weren’t all personal ones, however. Learning a new sport – that is an activity that I essentially had no familiarity with prior to eight months ago – provided a great reminder about the process of learning something new – and our walk with the Lord should always be a process of learning something new.

It is so easy to fall into the trap of believing that becoming a more mature Christian simply happens – either by coming to know Christ or by knowing Him for a longer period of time. While the Lord is gracious, especially with new Christians, nothing is farther from the truth. If it were true, Paul wouldn’t impress upon us to “finish the race” – it would happen automatically.

I don’t think my experience was unique. Two things characterized my life as a new Christian: I loved studying His Word and spiritually I was growing at breakneck speed. Of course those two things were related, but both were also a function of God’s tremendous grace that is available to new believers. For many people, me included, spiritual lessons come easy in those early days.

While this is wonderful – wonderful! – it builds an expectation that spiritual growth just sort of happens automatically. After all, it didn’t feel like I was trying very hard and God was enabling me to grow andpractices o was consistently the worst shooter on the range on any given day to being able to consistently hit the target, usually within a couple of inches of where I’m aiming – for you non-shooters, that’s not bad, not bad at all. I went from being a lousy shot to being a pretty fair one. I’m not winning any awards, but I’m not doing badly either.

The  disciplines and that allowed me to improve as a shooter are the same disciplines and practices that will help me grow spiritually.

Why do I care about becoming spiritually mature? Two reasons:It pleases God and it benefits me. I like to think I’m motivated purely by the former. The truth is that the latter is important to me, too. Know what? God knows that! That’s why He’s taken the time to explain those reasons to me as well. The more I become like Christ (which is another way of saying becoming spiritually mature), the more I will live a blessed life. I will have more peace and contentment. I will walk into every situation with the presence of God as my constant companion. I will not be shaken by the circumstances of this world. What a great way to live! And of course it’s an even better way to die.

But I digress. Let’s look at the practices that helped me improve as a shooter.

Study: Shooting a gun accurately requires a whole lot more than picking it up, pointing it and pulling the trigger. Over the past six months I have spent a fair amount of time learning about what those other things are. I read. I watched videos. I read some more. I talked to people. I received formal and informal instruction from experts. I learned about types of guns, gun safety, gun handling, loading, cleaning, and of course shooting.

Paul urged Timothy to “study” to show that he is “a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly explaining the word of truth.” (2 Timothy 2:15, NRSV) If we don’t study God’s Word, we will not learn how to properly use it. It will not be a weapon available to us when the enemy attacks. That means you and I must spend time studying Scripture. Not just reading it devotionally, but studying it. Take notes during your pastor’s sermons. Join a small group that studies the Bible (not just books about the Bible). Study it on your own. Just study!

Apply what I learned: That manifested itself in three ways –

1. I had to do things I’d never done before
2. I had to do things differently than I ever had before
3. I had to do things that just didn’t feel right

You can imagine that each of those things made me uncomfortable, but if I hadn’t endured the discomfort — worked through it – I would never have progressed. The same is true in our spiritual life. When we learn about practices in the Bible that are new to use, we need to try them. Maybe you’ve never fasted before – give it a try. Maybe you’ve never prayed with your arms raised – it’s Scriptural, so give it a try. It will feel unnatural – it won’t feel “right” – but try it. Then try it again. And again. Because it doesn’t feel right the first or the second or the third time. But eventually it clicks and it’s very right. Maybe you don’t like to pray in public. Get over it! Quit thinking about yourself and think about  the heart of God. Then pray.

Open yourself up to being obedient to serving and worshiping God in new ways. You will be uncomfortable. It won’t feel right at first. But there are facets of God to be discovered in those new patterns. Don’t miss them because you’re unwilling to be uncomfortable.

Practice. Then practice more. Phil and I have taken many basic ballroom dance classes. One of our early instructors used to tell our class over and over again that we needed to practice each step a thousand times. Our next instructor was a very sweet older man. He would get a bit lost in his love for the dance and he’d encourage us to practice our dance steps as we walked down the street. Then he would demonstrate the practice. Phil and I were never quite ready to be that bold (aka, look that foolish) in public, but the point is both instructors agreed that the only way to learn the dance steps were to do the over and over and over again.

Getting something right doesn’t mean you’ve learned it. It means you’re somewhere between lucky and experiencing your “aha” moment – that point at which what you’re learning makes sense. To actually learn it you must do it correctly over and over again until doing it right is more natural than doing it wrong. Doesn’t matter whether you’re talking about target shooting or serving God.

The first time you pray publicly you might blunder your way through it. That’s OK. God isn’t judging you badly – he’s proud that you’re trying. Trust me – the person you know who prays beautifully in publicly – hey didn’t start out sounding like that and God doesn’t honor them or their prayers more than he honors you or your prayers.

Make time for it! To study, try new things and practice takes time. And time doesn’t materialize on its own. Phil and I had a weekly range date – Thursdays during lunch. Previously Thursdays had been our day to go out to lunch together. We had to give up those dates for our new dates. We also tried to fit another range date in many weeks. It meant not doing something else. To read in the evening we had to watch less TV. Growing spiritually means we have to make time commitments for God. When will you set aside time to study His Word? When will you set aside time to pray? When will you set aside time to serve Him in whatever area He’s called you?

There is payoff, friends. You will grow in Him. You will draw closer to Him. You will become more like Him. Those are very good things. Worth far more than gold or rubies. Worth more than the pearl of great price.

The humble shall see their God at work and be glad;
And you who seek God, your hearts shall live.
Psalm 69:32 (NLT/NKJV)

A seeking heart is not simply a curious heart. Rather, it is a heart that approaches God with purpose and intent. Curiosity is simply a “wondering.” I wonder what’s at the end of this road. I wonder if that dog is friendly. We may begin our pursuit with a wondering – does He exist? Is He real? Will He answer me? God will respond to our wonderings – our curiosity, but only to a point. He will reveal a bit of Himself to the curious. But if we truly want to know God, we must move beyond curiosity to humility and obedience.

Satisfying our curiosity is something we do for entertainment and amusement. While God will provide entertainment and amusement, we don’t seek Him for that. We seek Him because He is worthy of our attention, praise and obedience. Curiosity is me-focused (satisfying myself); it carries a degree of arrogance in it. Seeking God is God-focused. A heart that seeks God recognizes the difference and approaches God in humility.

Let me pause here to say that there is a kind of curiosity that is truly innocent and child-like. That curiosity is filled with awe and it honors God. Curiosity in adults has been tainted by our sin and it places a distance between the one being curious and the thing being sought. It carries inside it a degree of arrogance that places the seeker above the thing being sought. Child-like curiosity is the very opposite. As we mature in Christ, He transforms our curiosity into child-like curiosity. That transformation occurs as our degree of humility grows.

The humble shall see their God at work and be glad;
And you who seek God, your hearts shall live.
Psalm 69:32 (NLT/NKJV)

The humble heart recognizes that He is the Creator and we are the created. It recognizes that we are but dust and He is all glory. It knows that He is King and we are His servants. We may not always act that way, but it is truth. If we want to know God we must seek Him with the proper attitude. He holds the power of life and death. We ought to tremble with both anticipation and fear as we approach Him; not simply with curiosity at what we might find.

As we develop a humble heart, we are being transformed into the image of Christ. Jesus described Himself as being “humble and gentle at heart” (Matthew 11:29). We not only honor God when we seek Him in humility, we become like Him.

An Obedient Heart
A heart that seeks God is a heart that desires – plans – to be obedient to Him. Samuel provides an excellent illustration of this. Samuel’s mother had been barren many years until God gave her a son whom she named Samuel. When Samuel was weaned, she gave him back to God and he grew up in the tabernacle being mentored and discipled by the priest Eli.

²One night Eli, who was almost blind by now, had gone to bed. ³The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was sleeping in the Tabernacle near the Ark of God.

⁴Suddenly the LORD called out, “Samuel!”

“Yes?” Samuel replied. “What is it?” ⁵He got up and ran to Eli. “Here I am. Did you call me?”

“I didn’t call you,” Eli replied. “Go back to bed.” So he did.
1 Samuel 3:2-5 (NLT)

This happened two additional times. Each time God called, Samuel immediately “got up and ran to Eli.” Samuel was sleeping when this happened, but when he heard his name called, he immediately inconvenienced himself and ran to be obedient. He didn’t roll over thinking “I’ll deal with it in the morning.” He was immediately obedient. It was in his heart to be so.

A heart that seeks God – one that wants to know Him more and more each day – will have the same disposition. Samuel was new at this – he didn’t know it was the Lord calling him, but his heart was already prepared to be obedient. After this happened two additional times Eli realized that God was calling Samuel’s name. He told Samuel to respond to the Lord when he called again.

And the LORD came and called [a fourth time] as before, “Samuel! Samuel!”

And Samuel replied, “Speak, your servant is listening.”
1 Samuel 3:10 (NLT)

Samuel has been quickly obedient to run to Eli each time he heard his name called. He was then obedient to Eli by responding to God when he heard his name called a fourth time. What is interesting about Samuel’s response to God is the word “listening.” It is the Hebrew word shama (pronounced shaw-ma’). It means to listen or hear with an intention to obey. What Samuel really said to God was “Your servant is listening and ready to obey.”

A heart that seeks God is one that has a predisposition to obey. God rewards obedience. No, our salvation is not based on our performance – our salvation, spending eternity with God in heaven, is based on our faith in Christ’s finished work on the cross. It is based on asking His forgiveness for the sins we’ve committed and placing our trust in Jesus who already paid the penalty for those sins. Period. Yet…God rewards our obedience. The Bible is as clear about that point as it is about faith being the sole requirement for salvation.

If you want to know God more, you must be willing to be more obedient. When He calls, run to obey. You will see Him perform things through you and you will get to know Him in a deeper and more wonder-ful way. It will build in you a more humble heart. It will cause you to seek Him more with a heart filled with child-like curiosity – a heart filled with awe and wonder.

God doesn’t speak because He likes the sound of His voice! He speaks to get our attention and to teach us or give us an assignment. The Lord’s voice is precious…don’t waste it!

Fortunately, He is willing to speak to us again if we’ve ignored Him in the past (and we all have at some point or another). Repent of having “deaf ears” and “slow obedience” in the past and ask Him to speak to you again. Then listen closely for His voice and when He speaks, respond as Samuel did “Lord, your servant is shama.”

Lord, I want to know You and I want to know Your ways. Yet I get caught up in this world at times. Grab my attention – remind me that You are waiting to respond to me. Teach me Your ways so that I see You at work in this world. Lord, develop in me a heart to seek You in every situation and every moment.

That’s the prayer we ended with in the first blog of our focus on a seeking heart. Have you been praying it faithfully? Or something like it, anyway? I hope so. But if not, that’s OK. You can always start today! God’s mercies are new every morning. Seek Him for them today!

This week I want to focus on developing a heart that seeks God. We have His promise that when we seek Him with our whole heart, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13).

Seeking God is not about doing all the right things, although developing the Christian disciplines is a good thing. It’s about connecting with God. It’s about continuing to pursue Him until you have connected with Him. It’s not about knowing things about God. It’s about knowing God. And to truly know God, you must have an experience with Him. Having an experience with God means more than simply reading Scripture and praying. It means lingering with Him. It means not giving up until you have touched the hem of His garment.

In his excellent book The God Chasers, Tommy Tenney wrote this:

When you pursue God with all your heart, soul, and body, He will turn to meet you and you will come out of it ruined for the world.
God Chasers by Tommy Tenney, Destiny Image Publishers, 1998 (p. 14)

Expect God to turn and meet you and expect to be changed! Expect the things of this world to hold less value for you – because when you have touched the eternal, the temporal loses its shine.

Because the things of this world are always before us, however, we can easily become deceived that they have value and we become “satisfied” with them. Satisfied with an easy life. Satisfied with prestige. Satisfied with having a happy family life. Being content is good, but being satisfied can lead to complacency and that kills our motivation to pursue God. Again, to quote Tommy Tenney:

There is much more of God available than we have ever known or imagined, but we have become so satisfied with where we are and what we have that we don’t press in for God’s best. Yes, God is moving among us and working in our lives, but we have been content to comb the carpet for crumbs as opposed to having the abundant loaves of hot bread God has prepared for us in the ovens of Heaven!
God Chasers by Tommy Tenney, Destiny Image Publishers, 1998 (p. 23)

Pursuing God with all your heart will change you! But don’t be scared! It’s a good change.

How do you pursue God whole hearted?
How do you develop a seeking heart?

The first step is developing the God Chaser mindset – be determined and diligent about seeking Him. Don’t settle for reading your Bible a few minutes a day. Don’t settle for short prayers. Don’t settle for doing the same things you’ve always done and getting the same results. Don’t settle! I’m going to discuss spiritual disciplines here, but more important than practicing the disciplines is how you practice them. Practice them with persistence and with expectation. Look for God! Connect with God. Otherwise, it just becomes more doing and more learning about God. And we want to know Him, not just know more about Him.

Bible Reading
Don’t rush through it. Linger over it. Pray through it. Read smaller portions so that you can digest them fully. In our Resting at the River’s Edge reading, we have the opportunity to see the whole picture because we are reading larger portions of Scripture. That’s a good thing. It’s also a good thing to take time each week to read smaller portions and mull them over. Read the passage in several different translations. Ask questions about the text – What’s the background? Why would the disciplines say that or do that? What’s that word mean? What does the passage reveal about the nature of God? Most importantly, ask God directly, “Lord, what do You have for me in this passage? How should I apply this passage to my life?”

Meditating
Meditation is a Biblical practice. It is the practice of rolling something over and over in our minds, turning it this way and that, looking at its many facets to find all its beauty and significance. After reading a small passage of Scripture, meditate on it. Highlight a key verse and carry it with you throughout the day. Think about it often. Consider how many times today you thought about something that happened yesterday – perhaps a conversation you had with someone, perhaps a television program you watched, perhaps the words to a song that has your attention. God’s Word is infinitely more important than any of those things. Mull over the Word of God, not last night’s episode of your favorite show. As you stay focused on Scripture, you’ll find that your thoughts change and your conversation will change. You’ll also find that God reveals more and more about that small verse you’re meditating on. You’ll find a whole treasure chest of diamonds in the passage.

“What do you see?”
In his book Developing Your Prophetic Gifting (Sovereign Word Publishing, 1994), Graham Cooke analyzes how God often gave prophetic messages to his prophets in the Old Testament. Again and again, God would ask them “what do you see?” The prophet would describe the picture in front of them – a pot boiling over from the north (Jeremiah 1:13) or good and bad figs (Jeremiah 24:3) – and God would give its prophetic significance – an enemy about to attack from the north (Jeremiah 1:14) or God’s intention for His people (Jeremiah 24:4-10).

I learned from that to ask God to reveal prophetic meaning in scenes that catch my attention. A child that distracted me during worship one Sunday morning became a lesson about how I am prone to wander outside the boundaries God has set for me (as the little boy was want to do that morning) and then pout when God sits me in a chair for being disobedient (again, mirroring the behavior of the child when his mother disciplined him). If I had not asked God if there was a message in the scene I was watching, I would have missed it entirely.

Ken Gire gives many examples of this in his book Windows of the Soul. It is a book about seeing God through glimpses of every day life – like watching a scene through a window.

To see what is in those windows we first have to stop, and then, as C.S. Lewis advised, “we must look, and go on looking till we have certainly seen exactly what is there.”

…

God speaks through many things. The field of a sluggard and the fruit of someone’s life are just two of them.

How many times, though, have we passed those fields without stopping to see what was there? How many times have we seen the fruit of someone’s labor but not the soul of the laborer. How many times have we seen but not learned, watched but not wondered what lesson this person’s life could be teaching us?
Windows of the Soul by Ken Gire, Zondervan Publishing House, pages 42 and 43

Breathing Prayer
Begin to think of prayer as an ongoing dialog that you have with God throughout the day. I call that “breathing prayer.” In other words, develop an ongoing prayer life – one that mirrors our breathing – regular, constant and refreshing. It is life-giving. As we inhale we listen for God’s answers and His heart; as we exhale we ask our questions of Him or breathe our thanksgiving. This imagery and practice can help center us in the midst of a chaotic day. It’s in or from that center that we find God. We won’t find Him when we are reacting to or become a part of the chaos around us. But we’re likely to find Him when we pause to seek Him. A simple inhaling of God’s peace and exhaling of the stress of this world, then a second inhaling to ask Him what He is doing in the situation and exhaling while we listen and look. Two deep breaths. Don’t let the enemy deceive you into thinking you don’t have time to take two deep breaths.

Lingering Prayer
Seek God by lingering with Him. Transform your prayer life by losing your shopping list! Don’t view prayer as the mall you go to periodically to pick up a few things you need. Think of prayer as time you linger with God. Time you spend with your best friend getting to know Him. I remember one summer in high school when I would spend hours sitting on a backyard swing with a couple of friends just talking. For the life of me I can’t imagine what we talked about for hours day after day, but it’s one of my most vivid memories of that time. Sitting on the swing, moving slightly back and forth as I talked with my friends.

Find a place where you can meet with God just to talk. Then visit that place frequently. Read Scripture a bit, then ask Him questions and wait for answers. This is a relatively new practice of mine and you know what? He answers my questions. Sometimes I have to ask them a few days or weeks in a row – I don’t know why He does that, but it’s my experience. Perhaps He just wants to make sure I’m serious. I don’t know. But I do know that He answers.

Remember, though, this is time with a friend. It’s not a time when you demand answers. Attitude is everything. He isn’t likely to answer questions that are asked with wrong motives, and there will undoubtedly be questions that He doesn’t answer. Sometimes He just asks us to trust Him. But it’s OK to ask. So go ahead and linger with God awhile and ask Him those questions you have.

I’ve been asking Him lately what it is about me that pleases Him. I’m not asking because I want the pat on my back. I’m asking so that I can do more what pleases Him. For the first few weeks, He answered the question I didn’t ask – He told me what didn’t please him. Oops! So I worked on those things. Then He told me something that pleases Him. I want to bring joy to God’s heart, so I’m doing more of that.

Linger with God and He’ll answer your questions, too.

Study Nature and Science
God has revealed so much of Himself through nature and science. When we look at the tremendous variety in every species of plant, animal and humans, we see just a glimpse of God’s infinite creativity. When we look at the stars we see the immensity of God. When we look at how the universe is held together, we see God’s preciseness. When we look at our bodies, we recognize with the psalmist that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Combine these studies with some of the other disciplines to hear God’s heart about creation and to learn His purposes.

Worshiping
Don’t just sing, worship. Close your eyes. Think about the meaning of the words. Pray as you sing them. Sing them again and again until their meaning moves from your head to your heart to your soul. Sing aloud when you’re alone, not just at church on Sunday morning. Worship Him. Enter into His presence.

Journaling
I journal because it focuses me to write more in quantity and specificity than I would think. In other words, it causes me to go deeper than I would if I weren’t writing. If I were only thinking about a passage, I would easily become distracted and miss the opportunity to delve more deeply into the treasure of God’s Word. If I am only thinking a prayer, I would stop at the surface level. When I write (type) them out, I find that my repentance is more genuine (because I become specific about what I am asking forgiveness for), my pleading more sincere and desperate, my desire to hear from God more urgent. I would offer a caution here – I sometimes physically remove my fingers from the keyboard when I am lingering with God because my typing can become a distraction to simply enjoying His presence.

Putting it Into Practice
Do I do all these things? Yes. Do I do all them all the time? No. Not even close. And that’s OK. This isn’t meant to be a list of things you should be doing all the time (although you should consistently be in God’s Word and in prayer). It is meant as ideas to help you seek and experience God in a greater way. May I challenge you over the next couple of weeks to try one of these methods that are new to you? Not just once, but a few times. Because God is ready to respond. He is waiting to be caught.

Resource Links
God Chasers by Tommy Tenney

Developing Your Prophetic Gifting by Graham Cooke

Windows of the Soul by Ken Gire

As we begin our series Living God’s Heart the first characteristic we want to focus on is developing a seeking heart. A seeking heart looks for God. It watches for what He is doing because what He is doing reveals His nature, His plans and His purposes. It seeks Him in every situation.

A seeking heart wants to know God – know ALL of Him – the good, the bad and the ugly we might say…except that there is no bad and ugly in God. There might, however, be some things that appear bad or ugly to us. If that’s the case, it’s because we don’t yet know God. What might seem bad to us might be things that are good for us but we resist them – like eating our vegetables when we were a child (or perhaps still as an adult). Or what might seem ugly to us is really God’s justice – or even His love. If we seek to know God, we will set aside our agendas, our expectations and even our opinions and say “Lord, I want to know You. Teach me Your ways.”

We are in good company when we develop a seeking heart. Moses, a man God called His friend, desired to know God better:

¹²One day Moses said to the LORD…“¹³If it is true that you look favorably on me, let me know your ways so I may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your favor.…^18bThen show me your glorious presence.”
Exodus 33:12a, 13a, 18b (NLT)

King David, the only man Jesus described as after God’s own heart desired to know God better. He wrote these passages in Psalms:

Show me Your ways, O LORD; Teach me Your paths.
Psalm 25:4 (NKJV)

LORD, teach me your ways, and guide me to do what is right because I have enemies.
Psalm 27:11 (NCV)

Teach me your ways, O LORD, that I may live according to your truth! Grant me purity of heart, so that I may honor you.
Psalm 86:11 (NLT)

And although it doesn’t specifically say that King David wrote Psalm 119, it bears his fingerprints and many scholars attribute it to him. I like this verse:

Put false ways far from me; and graciously teach me your law.
Psalm 119:29 (NRSV)

Clearly, King David desired to know God.

A heart that seeks God wants to know Him personally and intimately. A heart that seeks God takes delight in Him. Such knowledge and such delight doesn’t happen without intentionally pursuing the One who wants us to be caught.

In his book The Stronghold of God, Francis Frangipane reminds us that God “will not fight for our attention, He must be sought.” God does not impose Himself upon us. In my first blog of 2013, I quoted Isaiah 65:1:

The LORD says, “I was ready to respond, but no one asked for help. I was ready to be found, but no one was looking for me. I said, ‘Here I am, here I am!’ to a nation that did not call on my name.
Isaiah 65:1 (NLT)

God waits for us to seek Him. And when we do, He rewards us – we have His assurance that we will find him

¹³“You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart. ¹⁴I will be found by you,” declares the LORD.
Jeremiah 29:13-14a (NASB)

His promise to the Israelites remains His promise to us today. We will find Him when we seek Him with all our heart.

God wants us to seek Him and He promises that He will respond – He promises that we will find Him. What a reassurance, when our earthly bodies and spirits feel so inadequate to touch the heart of God! Next week we’ll look at how to seek God – how to develop a seeking heart. This week, let’s work on desiring to know God – let’s work on the desire to develop a seeking heart. Pray with me:

Lord, I want to know You and I want to know Your ways. Yet I get caught up in this world at times. Grab my attention – remind me that You are waiting to respond to me. Teach me Your ways so that I see You at work in this world. Lord, develop in me a heart to seek You in every situation and every moment.

I encourage you to pray a prayer like this each morning this week. God will answer your prayer and next week you’ll be ready for the next step.

Last spring I wrote a series of articles titled Live…Like Someone Left the Gate Open! It was a series that impacted me more than any other that God’s given me. A few months ago God began laying on my heart a focus for 2013 – essentially, a year-long series – about living from a heart that has been transformed by God – living from a heart that reflects His heart – living from God’s Heart! I am trusting that this series will take us more deeply into Christ-likeness than we’ve ever gone.

Each month we’ll focus on a different aspect of a healthy heart – healthy as God defines it, that is! We’ll start with a seeking heart and look at other conditions such as a faith-filled heart and a generous heart. We’ll also look at having a repentant heart and a joyful heart. (To name just a few.) For each condition of the heart, we’ll examine what that condition looks, how we develop it and how we live it.

Let me encourage you to take these messages into your heart and focus on developing them in your own heart, as I will be doing throughout each month. More than ever, I sense that it is time for us to go deeper into God – to allow Him to transform us into the image of Christ in a greater way. This world needs us.

I’ve not seen the movie Gladiator, but this morning as I was getting ready for work I had the television tuned to a Christian station. The preacher quoted the movie and it grabbed me: “What we do in life echoes through eternity.” (A subsequent search revealed that I’m probably the only preacher who hasn’t heard the quote. Oh well. Guess I lead a sheltered life when it comes to battle movies.)

What a great line, and what a biblical truism! What we do in this life – how we live, how we trust, how we hope – echoes in eternity. And how we live is largely determined by the condition of our heart.

The things we say are determined by the condition of our heart.

The good person out of the good treasure of the heart produces good, and the evil person out of evil treasure produces evil; for it is out of the abundance of the heart that the mouth speaks.
Luke 6:45 (NRSV)

Do your words bring life to those around you or are they carrying a spirit of criticism and death?

The things we do are determined by the condition of our heart:

I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. ²⁰Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. 
Ezekiel 11:19-20 (NIV)

Are your actions consistent with holy living? Are you living as one who has been set apart for God?

How we love God is determined by the condition of our heart:

Moreover, the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, in order that you may live.
Deuteronomy 30:6 (NRSV)

Our hearts must be circumcised – our desire for sin and our attachment to worldliness must be cut away – so that we can love God better, and in that loving receive life. Is your heart pining after the world or the Lord?

I expect to be challenged by this series – if I were to tell you the truth, I’d have to admit that I’m a bit afraid of it! Yes, I know, fear is of the enemy. I admit that I don’t have enough of God in me yet because I am afraid of the changes He’ll want me to make as I learn more about the heart He wants me to have.

But what I do here on earth does echo through eternity and I want those echoes to be good ones. I want them to touch people with life. I want to hear God’s heart beat and live it out.

So friends, I invite you to come along. And I encourage you to heed the words of the Psalmist:

⁶Come, let us bow down in worship,
let us kneel before the LORD our Maker;
⁷for he is our God
and we are the people of his pasture,
the flock under his care.
Today, if you hear his voice,
⁸do not harden your hearts…
Psalm 95:6-8a (NIV)

Let the adventure begin! Watch for the first blog in our Living God’s Heart series.