We Need a Generation That Seeks After God

³ Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord?
Who may stand in his holy place?
⁴ The one who has clean hands and a pure heart,
who does not trust in an idol
or swear by a false god.

⁵ They will receive blessing from the Lord
and vindication from God their Savior.
⁶ Such is the generation of those who seek him,
who seek your face, God of Jacob.

Washed White

In order to stand before God, we need to have clean hands and a pure heart.  Only God can give those to us, and only because His One and Only Son delivered to Him who sits on the throne in Heaven His perfect, sinless blood as the atonement for our sin.  And when the blood of Jesus is applied to us, we are washed white as snow.

We have been greatly blessed that Jesus died for us.  Prior to Jesus being born in the flesh, all who were faithful to God waited with ‘bated breath in anticipation for the time when they would be see the fulfillment of their faith and be able to reap the benefit of it.  We have it now, and rejoice in it – hallelujah!

Tactical Trust

It is important to have trust, but even more important where we put that trust.  Many people trust in different things:

• Money
• Spouse
• Government
• Themselves
• Familial Ancestry
• Occupation
• False gods
• Lucky charms
• The creation itself (or things found in it)
• and the list goes on and on…

We have been blessed to be able to know God through His Son, Jesus Christ.  It is Him that we place our trust.  Trust in anything or anyone other than Jesus Christ is like building a house on sand next to the ocean.  When the waves come, it will erode the sand and wash the house away.  But Christ is the Rock of our Salvation, and any who build on Him builds upon a firm foundation that stands strong like a fortress when the day of trial comes.  Trusting in anyone or anything except God alone is idolatry.

Benevolent Blessing

When we are blessed by God, we receive His full blessing:

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

God seeks to bless us, and desires for us to have His full blessing.  Just as good fathers seek the welfare of their children, God our Father seeks so much more our benefit, and blesses us.   He also provides for our requests:

⁹ “Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? ¹⁰ Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? ¹¹ If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him!”

Victorious Vindication

It is only through Jesus Christ that we are vindicated before God.  No work, however mighty, will make us any more acceptable to God.  Because of our sin nature, everything that we touch and do is stained with the wretched reek of sin. It is the blood of Christ that makes us acceptable to God; nothing more, and nothing less.  And when we accept Christ’s victory as our own by accepting Christ into our heart through acknowledgement of our sin and asking God to forgive us by allowing Christ to have complete reign in our lives, we are vindicated in the eyes of God.

It is only when God, through His Holy Spirit, empowers us and guides us to do His work for His purposes that the stain of sin is removed, for it is God Himself who works through us and in us to complete the work.  Then it pleasing to God, because God Himself authored it and brought it to completion.  Since God has done this, all glory belongs to God.  Who then can claim credit for what God has done through us as their own?

Seek the Savior

When we seek the face of our Savior, we humble ourselves before Him.  We must come with clean hands and a pure heart.  So when we seek, we seek with repentance, throwing ourselves on the mercy of a tender-hearted God who is full of grace and whose mercies renew every morning.  And when we seek Him, we will find Him.  God rejoices in and blesses those who seek Him as He desires to be sought.

A Qualifying Question

So, let’s ask ourselves a question:  Am I seeking God’s face as He desires me to seek Him?

A short prayer of preparation:

Father in Heaven, let my heart rejoice in my salvation!  May I seek Your face with confidence, knowing that the blood of Christ has washed me clean.  Father, forgive me all of my sins.  Reveal to me anything that may impede me from approaching You, for I greatly desire to be in Your presence.  Father, please forgive our wicked generation of their sins.  I confess the sins of this nation to You, for I sin with them, and am in need of Your forgiveness.  Turn the hearts of our people to You.  Help us to greatly desire to come to You for help.  Remember – act divinely upon the behalf of – all who are in offices of leadership over us.  For when we have Godly leader, the people will follow.  And when we have evil leaders, people will follow as well.  Help us to have Godly men and women over us that we may rejoice in the direction that they lead us.  Help me to seek Your face every day, and sit at the feet of Jesus through prayer and Your Word.  Tune my heart to Yours, that my desires would be for what You desire.  And bless me now, Father, with all that I need to accomplish Your Gods as I completely submit to Your Holy Spirit.  Amen.

Want more?  Why not try A. B. Simpson or A. W. Tozer?