Have you ever felt something so emphatically, your whole heart got involved?
The day my husband proposed to me is one I’ll never forget. What started out as another casual, goofy date (complete with using bubblegum worms to fish – hint, not proper bait) ended with him down on one knee—something I didn’t expect after just three months of dating! Yet even when my logical mind went “Too fast, too fast!” my heart was crying out, “YES, I WILL MARRY YOU A HUNDRED TIMES!” and thanks to God’s nudging, I went with the latter!
I love everything about Psalm 27—its evocative imagery, the heart of the Psalmist to draw near to his Maker and experience intimate fellowship with the one who is his fortress and refuge, even when enemies surround him and all else has forsaken him—but I especially love this verse. These few simple lines reflect such a tremendous, visceral yearning many of us feel in our lives.
When God beckons us, it’s not always something we just feel mentally; it can awaken in us a beckoning that tugs at our very heart. Our innate desire to love and be loved, to be pursued and cherished, was not created in us aberrant from the nature of our Creator. When He beckons us into the dance with Him, calling us to seek Him, it’s not just our lips or our minds that respond—our very heart cries out, “I will seek You!”
How beautiful is it that God welcomes and desires our passion toward Him? I remember the love I felt in the moment I leaped into my then-boyfriend, suddenly-fiancé’s arms when I said “Yes, of course I’ll marry you!” At the beginning of our relationship I often hung back on exuberant displays of affection, afraid he’d find me weird or over-excitable; but at that turning point, I wasn’t the least bit concerned with how I came across. I knew how utterly loved I was and all I cared about was expressing it!
So it is with our God. What joy it brings Him when we seek His face with our whole hearts, when we answer His call with enthusiasm! God knows it isn’t always easy to seek Him—there’s much we have to learn, much we have to embrace, and much we have to let go of to be righteous enough to enter into His presence and dwell on His mountain. Yet when we are willing to put forth that effort, to say “Yes, I will seek you!” when He beckons to our spirit, we experience a depth of intimacy with Him that can’t be achieved any other way.
That moment of wholehearted connection to my husband when I said “Yes!” is something I will never forget and hasn’t dimmed in the years since. In the same way, I want that unequivocal connection to Yahweh—the moment of “I will seek Your face” that changes everything. I want to keep choosing Him as I keep choosing to pursue my relationship with my husband even in tough times. If you too feel the yearning and hear the beckoning to seek Yahweh’s face, now is not the moment to be reserved, wondering if you might seem weird or over-excitable.
Now is the time to let your heart answer. Now is the time to say, “I will seek Your face, O Yahweh.”
