“…if my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” (2 Chronicles 7:14)

This concept of seeking the face of God seems weird and unattainable. I mean, if we don’t even know what the face of God looks like, how do we begin to seek Him out and seek His face? If we look at Old Testament context and original language, we find the meaning of the phrase, “seek His face”. These words lead us to topics of intimacy with God, closeness in proximity, drawing near in His presence. Throughout the Psalms, David interchanges phrases that describe God’s presence (intimacy and closeness to Him) with seeking His face.

When God declared these 2 Chronicle 7:14 if/then statements, it opened a door to a divine invitation to seek closeness and counsel of the very Creator of the universe. 

We recall, also, in the Old Testament Scripture of Exodus 33 that God tells Moses He will show and display His glory and power, but His face was so holy that it would kill the human, Moses, should he look upon it. A man such as Moses who diligently worshipped and followed after God with abandon…this man couldn’t even look upon the beauty of the Lord. 

But for Jesus…

When Jesus took His last breath on the cross and cried, “it is finished” the veil in the temple which separated humanity from God’s holy presence was torn not by human hands, but through the blood shed by Jesus our Messiah who brings us back to our loving Father. Our sins were covered by His love. No longer would we be at arm's length to God because of Jesus. A Holy Father God sent His precious Son to enter into our humanity and our sin and His death brought us back to what once was: fellowship, closeness, face to face proximity to our Creator. Just as Adam and Eve walked in the cool of the day with God, we too walk in this peace-shalom closeness with Him when we surrender to Jesus as Savior. The cool of the day with God is ours because of Jesus. 

This question then stands: do we, as people called by His name, then hold God’s glory, presence, power with value? Do we hold the weight of God’s presence like a block of gold or do we seek out that which distracts and glitters? 

Gold vs. glitter. This is a question I must daily ask the Lord to reveal. Am I seeking His face like I would value gold or am I chasing after things of this world that distract and fade away like glitter?

Hebrews 11:6 tells us that those who seek God Himself, who His is, what His character and nature is, those people will be rewarded…with His presence. We look at Hebrews 11 as the faith chapter and the Bible heroes mentioned had one thing in common. By faith, these men believed God to be the One and Only God. This shaped their faith. It framed their vision for life. They sought after who God is and believed Him to be the one and only. No other god would capture their heart, affection, and worship. 

I can’t string together words to convince you of the value of God’s presence in your life -- the value of that intimacy in knowing your loving Father face to face. Any words I pose to you will fall short in teaching or grounding you in what only meeting with Him will unveil.

As you make the holy decision to seek God’s face, favor, love, wisdom, forgiveness, mercy, He will meet you there to take you to new depths of knowing His character…who He is. 

Jesus made the way.

Will you take that step toward His face?

Prayer Points:

~Lord, I’m sorry when I don’t hold your presence and glory like gold…

~Show me how I’m easily distracted by that which glitters…

~Jesus, I seek You today. Give me a heart for You alone…