{"id":294,"date":"2011-03-20T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-03-20T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hanoverbaptistchurch.org\/blogpastor\/2011\/what-does-the-bible-say-about-seeking-the-face-of-god\/"},"modified":"2011-03-20T07:00:00","modified_gmt":"2011-03-20T12:00:00","slug":"what-does-the-bible-say-about-seeking-the-face-of-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/2011\/what-does-the-bible-say-about-seeking-the-face-of-god\/","title":{"rendered":"What does the Bible say about seeking the face of God?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.\u201d (Psalm 27:8—NKJV)<\/cite> <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The face is an insight into the soul of a man. We have many expressions which bear testament. We say that someone is \u201clong in the face\u201d to express sadness, or we say \u201cfall flat on your face\u201d to illustrate an embarrassing situation. We say when a girl smiles her \u201cwhole face lights up,\u201d meaning that her bright personality bursts out from within. We say \u201cwithstood him to the face\u201d to picture a confrontation which is personal and \u201cface to face,\u201d or we might say that something is a \u201cface-saving\u201d measure to describe an action taken in order to avoid a bad reputation. We also love a \u201cfamiliar face\u201d but despise the \u201cpoker face.\u201d <\/p>\n

It is no wonder that so many human emotions are easily described by the natural relationship between the face and the person. We live in a day where face transplants are yesterday\u2019s news. Face recognition technology is a growing science, though grandmoms have been experts in this for years (they see a baby and say, \u201che looks just like his father\u201d or \u201cshe favors her mother\u201d). Our face, while very personal, is our public persona, subject to scrutinizing judgment, for it communicates the hidden world of our heart. <\/p>\n

Since the face is a window into the soul, it is important to teach youngsters the art of elevating their face and making eye contact while looking into the face of another, especially an adult. Embarrassment, uncertainty, fear, youth, guilt, lack of confidence, defeat, and failure are all betrayed when a person refuses to look another in the face. Americans place a high value on the quality communicated when two men can confidently look each other in the face, displaying equal worth and equal status as men. It is for this reason that Americans do not bow to foreign potentates. From the beginning of our country, we have not elevated any man to a more worthy position of status, as if between ourselves and the One who is King, our heavenly Father. It is God before whom we bow, and none other. <\/p>\n

While the act of worshipful submission in the Bible is best illustrated by bowing down\u2014with your face to the ground\u2014before the majesty of your Creator, devotional allegiance and thirst for God\u2019s approving presence is illustrated by seeking His face. Just as a child looks up to the face of his parent when he is seeking reassurance, so the child of God longs to be the \u201capple of the eye\u201d of his heavenly Father. The High Priest\u2019s blessing of Numbers 6:24 states, \u201cThe Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you, and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you (look upon you with favor), and give you peace.\u201d <\/p>\n

Though living in sin denies you the pleasure of His \u201cshining countenance\u201d (\u201cBut your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you.\u201d Isaiah 59:2), and causes you to avert your eyes from seeking after God (just as Peter could not bear to lock eyes with our Lord after Peter had denied Him three times), you are readily challenged to confess your sins and to pursue open fellowship with your Lord. The Scriptures parade the virtues of seeking the face of the Master. \u201cYou will seek the Lord your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.\u201d (Deuteronomy 4:28) Cry out with the psalmist: \u201cHow long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will You hide Your face from me?\u201d (Psalm 13:1) \u201cMake Your face shine upon Your servant; save me for Your mercies\u2019 sake.\u201d (Psalm 31:16) \u201cSeek the Lord and His strength; seek His face evermore!\u201d (Psalm 105:4) When God\u2019s people openly confess their sin and unworthiness in awe of the holiness of God and in awe of His forgiveness wrought through the blood of Jesus Christ, then they freshly, freely, and daily pursue fellowship with Him found only in His presence and under the loving gaze of His face (Psalm 80:3, 7, 19) <\/p>\n

Do you anticipate the experience of being \u201cface to face\u201d with Christ your Savior like the hymn writer says? Why not live and treasure that relationship every day until you see Him face to face in eternity? Trust and obey. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.\u201d (Psalm 27:8—NKJV) The face is an insight into the soul of a man. We have many expressions which bear testament. We say that someone is \u201clong in the face\u201d to express sadness, or we say \u201cfall flat on your […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/294\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hanoverbaptistchurch.dreamhosters.com\/blogpastor\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}