Psalm 27:8 - March 22, 2009

Ps 27:8 My heart says of you, "Seek his face!" Your face, LORD, I will seek. NIV

This passage paints a clear and simple picture of the contrast between desire and response. For most believers there is a great gap between the genuine desire for more of God in our hearts and the reality of our follow through in actual pursuit of Him. Our hearts are more easily stirred than they are disciplined and so the body of Christ is full of people who are gripped by great longings and limited reality! One of the significant characteristics about David is that his passions have become his reality! This verse is a declaration of the resolve that has taken a hold of David’s heart. Not content to simply feel a desire for more, David is moved to a place of determined action. “I will seek!” Lord give us this seeking heart!
Jesus reflected on the human tendency to be moved in our emotions without being moved to action. In Matt 7:21 Jesus warns, "Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.” In one of His parables Jesus relates the story of two sons, Matt 21:28-32, "What do you think? There was a man who had two sons. He went to the first and said, 'Son, go and work today in the vineyard.' 29 "'I will not,' he answered, but later he changed his mind and went. 30 "Then the father went to the other son and said the same thing. He answered, 'I will, sir,' but he did not go. 31 "Which of the two did what his father wanted?" "The first," they answered. Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the kingdom of God ahead of you. 32 For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did.” God is greatly pleased by the heart that acts in response
to his voice.
The Spirit of God comes to us awakening desires, stirring us with impressions and leadings that are intended to enlarge our experience of his kingdom. The Father wants to increase our sensitivity to this touch from heaven and to bring us to the place of obedient response. When our hearts are stirring with a call to prayer, do we stop and pray? When the Spirit’s touch points us to a person or situation moving us to be a reflection of the kingdom of God in that moment do we overcome our fears and distractions to yield to his leading? The reality of the kingdom of God is swirling around us and within us, seeking for opportunity to be expressed through a divine partnership with our hearts. Lord please give to us this responsive heart of David where desire and actions meet, where leading and response come together so that God can be glorified both through our examples of obedience and the fruit that grows from that obedience.