I love David’s words in Psalm 63:1. Hear his heart. It says, “O God, You are my God; early will I seek You; my soul thirsts for You; my flesh longs for You in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water.” 

He wrote another. Psalm 42:1-1 says, “As the deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and appear before God?” Do you thirst for the Lord? If not, I encourage you to pray one of
Tozer’s prayer. “Lord, I want to thirst to thirst for You.” 

It doesn’t matter why you have no thirst. Don’t get caught up on that. Pursue the Lord through words that awaken longing. “I want to want You. I desire to desire You. I thirst to be thirsty still.” O Lord, awaken our hearts in purposeful pursuit to know You through intimate communion.

My mind goes back to A. W. Tozer. If you have not read “Pursuit Of God” I encourage you to do so. He was a man who prepared his heart through his prayers. Say this, “Lord, I desire to desire You” and see how that awakens your heart.

Here is part of a new song about purposeful pursuit: Womb of the Morning

I come to You O Lord in the womb of the morning. To sit and worship You and call upon Your name. You answer me with a sweetness that melts my heart. And opens me to receive Your words.

Your words like oil penetrate the places in my heart that were hardened through fear. You say My child don’t be afraid. I’ve been there all along to shield and protect. Let go of that which you clutch so tight. That I might fulfill the deepest longings of your heart.

Ezra 7:10 says, “For Ezra had prepared his heart to seek the Law of the Lord, and to do it, and to teach statutes and ordinances in Israel.” Joshua 1:8 helps us understand how we are to prepare our hearts. It says, “…meditate in it day and night, that you may observe to do according to all that is written in it.”

Everything in our progressive sanctification journey is predicated in God’s word. He is to be our priority over and above all that we do. Since all actions come from thoughts, we need to examine what we believe.

Do we really believe that hiding God’s word in our heart will keep us from sinning? Do we really believe that experiential truth will set us free and keep us free? Is God’s word the center of all that we think, say, and do?

Uzziah did right in the eyes of the Lord when he became king. 2 Chronicles 26:5 says, “He sought God in the days of Zechariah, who had understanding in the visions of God; and as long as he sought the Lord, God made him prosper.”

However, he did not finish well. His son Jotham did what was right before the Lord. In 2 Chronicles 27:6 it says, “So Jotham became mighty, because he prepared his ways before the Lord his God.” 

In order to prepare anything, we have to be intentional and focused on our goal. In order to press into Jesus in the face of our impossibilities, we have to be like Paul and forget what lies behind.

Ezra was a priest. His lineage came  from Aaron. Ezra came to Jerusalem with a pagan king’s  blessing. Ezra 7:6 says, “…The king granted him all  his request, according  to the hand of the Lord his God upon him.”

Philippians 3:14 says, “I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” Though Paul was pressed through his trials, he used them to press into Jesus.

2  Corinthians 4:8-9 says, “We were hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed—always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body.”

Olives have to be pressed before the oil can be released; a rose petal releases more fragrance when crushed. 2 Corinthians 2:14 says, “Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place.”

Romans 5:3 Amplified says, “Moreover (let us also be full of joy now!) let us exult and triumph in our troubles and rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that pressure and affliction and hardship produce patient and unswerving endurance.”

On November 9, 2018 the Lord spoke something into my heart that propelled me forward. ‘Forgetting is the empowerment to reach.’ Think of a trapeze artist. They have to forget their first bar in order to reach out and take hold of the oncoming bar. It is one fluid motion ~ no looking back.

Paul’s belief system allowed him over and over to forget what was behind. He was able to quit pleading with the Lord to remove his thorn ~ once he understood God’s grace. The words, “…My grace is sufficient for you. My strength is made perfect in weakness…” empowered him to reach beyond the thorn, and all the suffering he endured. 2 Corinthians 12:9. 2 Corinthians 11:23-33.

I want to insert something here. Martha Snell Nicholson wrote a short poem called “The Thorn.” She was bedridden, suffered from four incurable diseases, and lived with constant pain for 35 years. She said that her ‘thorn’ was used to pin back the veil that hid the Lord’s face.

Years ago I was reacting to something. The Lord stopped me with this question. Marilyn, what do you believe about yourself right now? My reaction was rooted in my belief system. A chapter in “Freedom! From Past Hurts” is entitled: Belief Systems.

Our belief systems find their origin in our past experiences. They influence our motives, thoughts, actions, attitudes, and habits. If you don’t know what you believe about yourself, then listen to your thoughts.

Have you ever thought something  like, ‘That was a stupid move, I can’t do anything right, or I’m a failure’? Do you preface things you are facing with the thought ‘It won’t work’ and thus sabotage yourself before you even begin?

Do your belief systems serve you well, or do they derail you? Paul had strong belief systems that served him well. Here is one that I lean on. Philippians 3:13 says, “…one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead.”

Unashamed. Nothing to hide. No fear. No embarrassment. Pure desire. Inner freedom. I love to read about Joshua. After Moses left the tent of meeting, Joshua lingered. Deuteronomy 33:11. Do you linger in the Presence of the Lord?

Psalm 27:8 says, “When You said, “Seek My face, my heart said to You, Your face, Lord, I will seek.” This is how I read Song of Solomon 2:14. “O my Dove, in the clefts of the rock, in the secret places of the cliff, let me see Your face, let me hear Your voice; for Your voice is sweet, and Your face is lovely.”

Gazers endure. Jesus is our example. Hebrews 12:2 says that He endured because of the joy that was set before Him. He had a point of focus. He never looked back. Luke 9:51-53 says that the messengers entered the village to prepare for Him, “But they did not receive Him, because His face was set…” Gazers resist all distractions.

This morning I was praying for someone in a very hard trial. As I prayed, “Lord help him to cling to You, like a barnacle clings to a rock as the stormy waves beat against it,” this song came to mind. Some of you know if really well, others may not have heard it before. May it encourage you today

Jesus ascended to heaven before the eyes of the disciples. Acts 1:10 says, “And while they looked steadfastly toward heaven as He went up…” In verse 11 they were asked, “…Men of Galilee, why do you stand gazing up into heaven?…”

2 Corinthians 3:18 says, “But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord…” A humble heart is open and unveiled. There is an acknowledgment of our finiteness, in the Presence of One who is Infinite. 

Here are two verses from a new song: I lift my unveiled face to gaze into Your face. Face to face I behold You as You behold me. No veil separates us. No fear of being known. We have intimate communion. Our hearts are knit as one.

I stand O Lord in Your presence unashamed. All guilt is washed away. All condemnation is cleansed. Through the blood. Through the shed blood of Jesus.