Hear my voice when I call, Lord;
be merciful to me and answer me.
My heart says of you, “Seek his face!”
Your face, Lord, I will seek.
Do not hide your face from me,
do not turn your servant away in anger;
you have been my helper.
Do not reject me or forsake me,
God my Savior. – Psalm 27:7-9
I remember several years ago when I knew my Mom’s cancer was taking over and I was laying on the floor sobbing, begging God for her life. I knew He heard me, but I was pleading with Him to please not leave me without my Mom, who was my best friend and closest confidant besides being my mother.
I begged Him for a miracle, thinking surely He was going to let her be the exception to that “this rare cancer is killing you for real” verdict we had gotten. He had saved her so many times… and if He would just do it and make it final, what a glorious testament to the world, right? It would surely bring so many people to Him, marveling at what He had done. Or at least that’s how I tried to bargain with Him.
In that time, this part of Psalms 27 was my constant and earnest prayer. And no, He didn’t fix Mom on this side of Heaven, but how selfish of me to want to keep her here if it was her time to finally be rewarded for what she had endured and for all the lives she touched with her beautiful spirit. But I remember once she was gone, for all the incredible loss I felt, I knew that God had answered my prayer and healed her completely.
In the years since, as I have learned more about having mature faith — the kind that doesn’t just blissfully talk about how God’s working everything out for our good in some Pollyanna world where everything has a happy ending — I have learned that this verse can very much be more an expression of a desire to be close to God, and to never be separated from Him.
Your heart tells you to seek His face, so seek His face. It’s that longing to be with Him that builds our faith and ultimately protects us when times get rough. He doesn’t move away from us, and His peace and hope are there for us as long as we seek Him.
If you are spiraling out of control, if addiction or obsession or despair or heartbreak or cancer or finances or anything else are proving too much for you, SEEK HIS FACE.
Stop running, get into His word and listen. He will rescue you there. ❤️
