“I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart, I will tell of all your wonders.” Psalm 9:1

My relationship with the Lord has grown a bit stale of late; I have faithfully met with Him each day, reading the Word, praying and meditating, but it has become quite mechanical. I asked the Lord for a refreshing in our relationship, and He answered with a phrase in a verse that has made a great difference: “seek my face…” (2 Chr. 7:14).

With this phrase came the realization that instead of seeking Him, I had been more seeking His help, His power, and His direction – all gifts He desires to give us – but I had not been seeking Him personally.

To seek His face, to sit with Him, talk with Him, and to lay in His hands all I have and want, so I can focus on Him, is more important to Him than all that I can accomplish. To seek His face means we have to look away from all that we’d like to be involved in and to look into His eyes. He then, in His love and grace, can pierce us to the soul with the light of His look, helping us to deal with sins we’ve overlooked or wanted to ignore.

One help in this for me is to first lift my soul to Him, telling Him all the things weighing on me, what I’d like to do and see done, and to surrender them all to Him to deal in His power and wisdom. Then having laid these aside, I can fully focus on Him. And He then gives me insight, joy and peace, as well as a freshness in my relationship with Him. “He brought me out into a spacious place. He rescued me because He delighted in me.”  Psalm 18:19