“One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple.“— Psalm 27:4, NIV
People try to live apart from our Creator.
But inevitably, circumstances arise, things happen, and life brings us to a screaming awareness of our incompleteness and inability to live “abundantly” without God. The Holy Spirit works in us, through us, and around us to draw and woo us to desire the Lord, and to pray for what David sought: the beauty of the Lord.
At a time in my life when I began to realize God was dealing with me about some personal issues, I began to hunger for and experience the presence of God.
I began to long, as David did, to behold the beauty of the Lord.
Yes, beauty.
Not as the world defines it, but as the beauty that reveals God’s handiwork and enables us to live in this world but not belong to the world.
My soul began to thirst for God, to need Him in a way that transcended all my efforts to preach or teach. And I wanted to impart this hunger and thirst to others, that they might desire to be in the presence of the Lord.
No amount of spiritual posturing, religious rituals, or even ministry work can replace the raw humanity of a believer pouring his or her heart out to God. Allowing ourselves to be honest and real, we can let God take all that pain and sorrow—all the messiness of life— and transform them into His blessing, healing, life lessons, and His plan of redemption for our lives.
