‘Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!’ Psalm 105:4
and, be blessed!
Consider the lilies of the field… Matt 6:28
Consider the lilies of the field… Matt 6:28
‘Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!’ Psalm 105:4
and, be blessed!
thedailylily.com 
Yes, the scripture that comes to mind is: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.”
I’m not sure I have the scripture worded exactly right, can anyone help me locate, where this scripture is? I want to make sure I have posted the verse correctly.
Matthew 6:33
Jesus says, in Matt. 6:31-34,the highlight of which is the verse i that says, SEEK YE FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD “Do not worry about and be anxious over what we are going to eat or drink or wear, for the gentiles and heathen SEEK after these things, continually. And your Heavenly Father knows you need all these things…BUT SEEK FIRST THE KINGDOM OF GOD and His righteousness, His way of doing and being right and then all these things taken together will be GIVEN to you besides.. So do not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will have its own worries and anxieties and troubles.”
And we must seek the presence of God and His strength for our own puny strength is insufficient and inadequate and ineffective in this world’s trials.
Seek: inquire, search, look for, go to, bend one’s efforts towards. Coupled with the word ‘continually’ in the Psalm, it seems seeking requires a progressive, determined, deliberate effort to enter into God’s presence and find His strength. It doesn’t come to us, we go to it and to Him.
We know that everyone has a story to tell. My heart is wrenched with the nature of the stories. If you are going through something that is tearing you apart, remember that God is waiting for you to call upon him. He is there with out stretched arms ready to enwrap you. Tribulation is not easy and thank goodness God sends his faithful prayer warriors. I hope you have many who are faithful to lift you/your situation to the Lord. Somehow you will feel their tender prayers and find relief for a time. Remember that the Lord knows all that you are going through and He knows when to pick you up to give you relief and strength and then you like a child will look up to Him and He like a father will continually lift you until you are through the tribulation. Psalms 121: 1 says 1-2 I look up to the mountains; does my strength come from mountains? No, my strength comes from God, who made heaven, and earth, and mountains.
Rena, I think Dr. Billy Graham has said that Psalms 121:1 is his favorite devotional Bible verse. I repeat this verse again in thought and prayer for many that are now going through very difficult and trying times.
” I will lift up my eyes to the hills—
From whence comes my help?
My help comes from the LORD,
Who made heaven and earth.”
I pray for the ones that are having physical sicknesses in mind and body. I pray for the ones that are having emotional stress from difficult situations in life. I pray especially for young children that are struggling with school. Our soldiers at war. I pray for The Church to awaken and be alert and be fruitful in this generation.
‘Seek the Lord and his strength; It takes action/work/diligence to seek. And, when one needs strength it may seem impossible. But if we have been seeking his presence continually it should be a little easier. Yet, when others need or we need a little strength it is good to have others to help with prayer and a helping hand. As Rena said above God has faithful prayer warriors.
I am very thankful for all that pray for me, my family and my church and the Body of Christ. Thanks to all prayer warriors.
Thanks for documenting the location of the scripture I wrote about.
I, too, am very grateful for the prayers that are spoken for me and my family. I pray that God will continue to be with our soldiers and their families. I pray that this website reaches people who do not know Christ and help those who do know the Lord, continue to be faithful to Him.
Thank you, Needles. It is so refreshing to open this blog on awakening and see your beautiful face and your faithfulness to God on a daily basis. I love watching your steady spirit, and your love and compassion topped with mercy, goodness, kindness that jumps with joy and peace. The fruit of the Spirit covering you like a fresh rain upon the land. To see this and know and understand that you pray and stand in agreement with me and others gives Friday and each day a get up and go.
Needles, laugh a little with me now. Look what my FB friend posted for us this am:
Ryan Overton” Dear Friday, I Really Don’t Appreciate You Taking So Long To Show Up, But I’m Glad You Made It!!!! You Have Made So Many People Happy! See Ya Next Week….Hopefully A Little Earlier! I Love You! LOL!”
I must write him back and tell him my friend, Needles, working Friday, Sat./Sun. might write the same for Dear Monday….LOL
“…Imitate those who through faith and patience inherit what has been promised”
(Hebrews 6:12, NIV) ” …Abraham believed God even when his circumstances looked impossible.”
Note
:a) God rewards the ones who diligently seek after Him.
b) Stand in faith on the promise
c) Keep believing for the promise
I pray for Our Heavenly Father to strengthen you this moment to seek after Him and His promises….
Loved the you tube link of the beautiful child reciting the 23rd Psalm. Also saw that precious little tot that sang 3 verses of Amazing Grace. Truly Amazing.
We must be Having faith to stand on the promises because the reward of them is so great and is time well spent, seeking the PROMISER of the great and precious promises. Our faith is put to the test every day. Will we choose to seek out the Lord to see what His plan is for us, for that moment, or will we haphazardly stumble around in our own plots and plans and fall on our faces…the face that we saw in the mirror in the morning when we prayed and promptly forgot what we “looked” like, as James warns.
Oh, another thing. Jesus said in Matthew 12:7…”Go and learn what this means…’ I will have mercy and not sacrifice’. What could that mean? He told us to ‘go and learn’ what it means. I want to understand that better. And the higher implications of it
I think it means just what it says, get some education before you run your mouth. You talk about things you do not understand or have teaching on. Seems like they were not concerned about stealing but about observing a man made law.
Thoughts on MG’s above ?”It is a day of mercy and not a day of sacrifice.” Jesus showing mercy to the hungry… man looks at the face of the coin. As Gary has said the coin has two sides, doctrine and piety. Jesus is the coin but we like to flip the coin for our answers.
As our blog scripture encourages us to do: ‘Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually!’ Psalm 105:4 He many find food for you from odd places and strange people. What a blessing to strive to stay in the presence of Jesus, Our Lord, King and Priest. He knows how to meet our every need.
As we are seeking the Lord and His strength, my Bible index tells three ways we can be strengthened:
by wisdom:”Wisdom strengthens the wise more than ten rulers of the city.” Eccles. 7:19
by waiting on the Lord: “But those who wait on the LORD shall renew their strength…” Isaiah 40:31
and by His grace: “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” II Cor. 12:9
The teaching of the ministry of surrender seems to be a message that the Lord is putting on His teachers’ and prophets’ hearts in this season. On Sunday, Gary taught, “don’t fret on or about giving something up or fret about missing out on something (in the secular). But learn of HIM. Embrace Jesus and let HIM embrace us. And as we give it up and learn and embrace the living God more and more, rivers of living water will flow out of our bellies.(Jon. 7:38)
Then in STREAMS DEVOTIONAL I read this the next day. I quote, “There is a Providence of loss., a ministry of failing, a gift of emptiness (Sara calls it “white space” in her book). “For it has come to pass… for a season for a reason…and it passes away. That’s the history of our yesterdays, the prophecies of our tomorrows fAND… the Giver of gifts, is our TODAY. The woes and tears of life on earth belong to the interlude, the intermission in the drama of life but it is not the grand finale. When some spring or resource has dried up ( like the Elijah’s gourd and brook that dried up) then we really find out with certainty within ourselves that our help is in the Lord and His Providence…our Provider. “
In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, “blessed are those who mourn for they shall be comforted.” Earlier this month, Sara taught….. Do I mourn my flesh….something that has to be given up? Give it up, mourn for it, mourn the loss and then move forward. The mercy of God will cover that sacrifice. These following sentences by anonymous tell the story, prosaically.
Measure your life by loss not gain
Not by the wine you’ve drunk but the wine you poured forth through pain
For Love’s strength stands in Love’s sacrifice, to live
And He who “suffers” most has most to give.
Can we as mature Christians identify with this concept of piety? Gary says that is what God is calling us to. Some of us will have to retrain our thinking and attitude to embrace this ‘out-of-the-box approach in our Christian walk. I DO and I WILL!
There is a chorus I like to sing about God’s presence,”In Your presence, in Your presence there is peace, in Your presence, in Your presence there is joy. I will linger, I will stay in Your presence day by day, till Your likeness be seen in me.” Yet there is much more than just joy and peace to be found in His presence because God has so many attributes…among other things we will find there is Truth, wisdom, justice and holiness there.
Today in a teaching by Pastor Stanford, we heard reiterated what our pastors have been teaching in several different series…. to begin to simplify our lives… in the way we speak to ourselves, the way we speak to others, the way we speak to God, the way we live, and believe. We were encouraged to simplify our lives, by getting rid of some of the baggage ( Gary calls them barnacles) on our lives, and on our words. God is telling His preachers and His prophets the same thing. And it is not just the material things that bog us down, like messy closets and garages, cell phones, texting, computers, emails, etc etc but the spiritual clutter we hold with us. It stymies us, and holds us captive. Our attitudes about the simple things that Jesus taught….like find a quiet place and leave some time to just talk to the Lord. The teacher, today called it “Margin”. Sara calls it ‘white space”. But they mean the same thing. Time to cry out to the Lord, unload all your stuff and burdens and woes.,and joys and gratitude, etc. Talk to Him in your prayer closet. Seek His presence. Pastor Stanford said that we would start to feel the strength and grace that comes from being in the Lord’s presence and communing with Him.
He said that many of us feel that we don’t have worthiness to go before God when we pray and so we solve that attitude problem by NOT PRAYING MUCH.
He challenged us to read the Book of Philippians, one chapter a day for four days and underline the phrases that speak to us or that the Holy Spirit quickens to us. On the 5th day go back and meditate on the underlined phrases and see what the Lord is saying to you (us).
MG,
I read the first chapter of Philippians and I’d like to share some here. Read with me: “Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing side by side, fighting together for the faith, which is the Good News. Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed, but that you are going to be saved, even by God himself.” (verses 27-28)
“you are going to be saved”…….Let’s reread the initial scripture and words, from the initial blog here: “Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His presence continually! and be blessed!”
Needles and I are doing a Bible study called Anointed – Transformed – Redeemed : A story of David. This is an awesome Bible study. As we are studying David’s life, we see David seeking the Lord and the Lord’s strength. We see David seeking the Lord’s presence continually. David lived this verse. God loved David and He blessed David. 1 Chronicles 14:8-11 “When the Philistines heard that David had been anointed king over all Israel, they mobilized all their forces to capture him. But David was told they were coming, so he marched out to meet them. The Philistines arrived and made a raid in the valley of Rephaim. So David asked God, “Should I go out to fight the Philisitines? Will you hand them over to me? The Lord replied, “Yes, go ahead. I will hand them over to you.” So David and his troops went up to Baal-perazim and defeated the Philistines there. “God did it!” David exclaimed. “He used me to burst through my enemies like a raging flood!” 1Chronicles 14:13-17 But after a while the Philistines returned and raided the valley again. And once again David asked God what to do. “Do not attack them straight on,” God replied. “Instead, circle around behind and attack them near the poplar trees. When you hear a sound like marching feet in the tops of the poplar trees, go out and attack! That will be the signal that God is moving ahead of you to strike down the Philistine army.” So David did what God commanded, and they struck down the Philistine army all the way from Gibeon to Gezer. So David’s fame spread everywhere, and the Lord caused all the nations to fear David.”
David was seeking the Lord and His strength. David seeked the Lord for both battles and was obedient. What an awesome example for God’s people.
Needles, that’s good. The first thing I noted that you had “underlined” in your reading is…’conduct yourselves in a manner WORTHY…”. That takes care of what the teacher said when Christians say they do not feel worthy to talk to God so they don’t pray much. Another phrase you noted was that we must not be intimidated by our enemies, especially the one who whispers to us constantly that we are not really worthy and that God is not going to listen to us so why pray! We know that enemy is satan.
So your conclusion is well noted, then. “Seek His presence continually and be blessed.” Amen!
CF….That Bible recount reminds me of the Chorus that we sing…
The move is on, praise God the move is on
the move is on, praise God the move is on
I can HEAR THE RUSTLING IN THE MULBERRY TREES
And I know, I know, I know the move is on.
Move on brother, move on sister
This is your moving day
Move a little closer
WINDS OF CHANGE are blowing
Move on brother move on.
Chickenfarmer, as you wrote about David’s seeking God, the scripture came to mind, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” Jer. 29:13 NIV . David had a wholehearted heart for God and that must have been one reason he found God and His will and wisdom when he sought him.
“God said, ‘I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart. He will do everything I want him to do.” Acts 13:22 NLT
“Seek the LORD while you can find him. Call on him now while he is near.” Isaiah 55:6
CF I loved how God gave directions to David as to when to wipe out the Philistines. David sure had an ear for what God was saying. God said, LISTEN to what? the sound of marching in the tops of the poplar tree? Some of us would say – What?! God sometimes has us do things in an unexpected way or tells us to do things in a way that we did not expect to do it. If we do it like David did then God will get the praise – if only we listen and walk in obedience. Another character in the bible was Noah. God told him to build and ark in the desert. Again the people would say – What?! He listened and walked in obedience too and gave God the praise. In Anointed, Transformed, Redeemed it says in the footnotes of 2 Samuel 6: 9 … our enthusiasm comes with obedience.
“our enthusiasm comes with obedience.” The longer I serve the Lord, the more I find I have no enthusiasm until I put my foot to the pedal and then the joy begins. When I was younger ‘enthusiasm’ was my middle name. No, over enthusiastic was more like it. That was fine when I was growing and learning. However, when I came to know and understand more of my eternal relationship with The Lord my enthusiasm became one with Him. My understanding and knowing who He is and what He does and will do with me and through me is the zeal of life!
Many times I still want the ’emotion of enthusiasm’ to be the ear and eye to move me but it does not. When I have the ear of God and the all seeing eye of The Holy One passion, zeal, and energy pursues.