Seek His Face
I write this week’s devotional for myself as much as for anyone else. We live in challenging times and I find myself frustrated and angry a lot. Yes, I have faith in God, and I know his purposes will prevail, but I still get angry when I hear politicians saying and doing things I disagree with. Like many of you, I hold strong opinions and I don’t appreciate when people think differently than me. That’s my confession. But I’ve also been thinking a lot about the role of the church. What does God want from us while we’re dealing with a pandemic, school closures, social isolation, political unrest, etc.? And the one thought that keeps coming to me is this: God wants us to humble ourselves, to repent of our evil, and to seek His face. It’s an invitation that’s repeated over and over in the scripture.
“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14.)
When I pray for our country, I pray that the church will lead the way in humility and prayer; that we will repent of our evil ways and earnestly seek God. I believe this is the call for God’s people, not just now but at all times. We are to humble ourselves. Now, like I said, it’s easy to get stuck in our ways of thinking, to become inflexible, unwilling to consider other views, and to think we’re always right. This is bad, but I’m afraid we’ve made it worse because now we’ve taken the next step toward demonizing those who think differently than us. We pass sweeping judgments against people who hold opposing views, even within the body of Christ!
Humility is being honest about our condition – dealing with the speck in our own eye – before we judge and condemn others. And what is our condition? In the book of Revelation, God says, in effect, you think you’re rich and lack nothing, “but you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked.” That’s our real condition apart from the grace of Christ Jesus. We think we’re doing okay without Him, but we’re not. We act like we’re secure in our riches, but we’re not. We pretend that we can create a just world that will save us all, but we cannot. A friend of mine once said of contemporary culture, “We hold too high a view of man and too low a view of God,” and I think he’s right. So the first thing we must do is humble ourselves before God and one another.
Now those words from Revelation were spoken to the church at Laodicea, which I’m afraid resembles the American church in a lot of ways. And here’s the other thing God said about them: “You are neither hot nor cold. I wish you were either one or the other! So because you are lukewarm – neither hot nor cold – I am about to spit you out of my mouth.” (Rev. 3:15-17). If we apply these words to ourselves - and I think we should - then it’s imperative that we recognize our very humble state before God and answer His call to choose whether we be hot or cold; for Jesus himself said, “He that is not with me is against me.”
This brings me to another thought I’ve been having. We, as the church, need to get serious about following Christ. Again, I write this for myself as much as for you. The scripture says over and over that we should love God with everything we have – it’s the first and greatest commandment. “You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength” (Deut. 6:4). The LORD also says that if we return to Him, then He will return to us; and that we will find Him when we seek Him with all our hearts (Zech. 1:3; Jer. 29:13). This idea of returning to God and seeking Him echoes throughout the scripture, which tells me that God is very serious about it.
If we’re not seeking Him above all else, then what are we really doing?
Jesus, Himself, says that we cannot have two masters – it’s impossible to love the world and to love God at the same time. Why? Because our God is a jealous God who will not tolerate our idols and the things we seek or exalt above Him. Period. But when I look around our culture, at the church, at my own life and the condition of my own heart – I see a people that are in love with the world and seeking so many things before God. Like the Israelites, we’re at risk of prostituting ourselves to the culture around us. (See Ex. 34:12-15). This is not okay, and the Word of God condemns it.
“You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.” (James 4:4). I fear these words are written for you and me, maybe more than for anyone in human history.
So let’s stop conforming to the pattern of the world around us. Let’s stop being angry and full of our own opinions. Let’s stop acting like our politicians have the answers to our problems. Let’s resolve, as a chosen people, to give God nothing less than all that we have. Let’s humble ourselves in repentance and let’s seek His face, and let’s have faith that God will make good on His promise to heal our land. I believe He will.
Josh Landrus