I have been experiencing this most recently with Psalm 27:4, which has long been one of my very favorite verses in scripture (as is probably evident in the name and subheading of this blog). I know it by heart, and what I love is that when we fix God's Word in our hearts and in our minds and invite it to dwell in us, He will call it to mind and speak it to us/over us in our times of need. It's one of the many ways we hear from Him! With regard to this particular verse, God has been bringing it to my mind over and over again these past few days and I've realized that it's been speaking to me in a deeper, more profound way and has been an eye-opening, re-orienting truth in my time of need:
"One thing I ask of the Lord, this is what I seek..."
Now in all honesty, how often do we go to God in prayer intent on just one thing? And not just any one thing, but the one thing: Him. I think it's really easy as we go about our day to day lives and get caught up in the cares of this world for our prayers to become ongoing lists of what God can do for us, what He can give to us, what we decide that we want or need in this world in order to be happy, to be at peace, to feel secure, to feel fulfilled. It almost becomes this sense of entitlement as, whether we recognize it or not, we come to believe we deserve certain things from God and we deserve this particular life that we have envisioned and have tried to plan for ourselves based on worldly standards. We formulate our own plans and simply want God to sign off on them. Now while we know that God absolutely loves to bless us and give good gifts to His children (Matt. 7:11), and that Jesus came to give us full and abundant lives (Jn. 10:10), we also know that the gifts should not and do not equate to the Giver. They cannot overtake or surpass their Source and they themselves should not be our focus. So when we begin to elevate God's blessings above God Himself, when we shift our focus from Him to them, we are no longer in God's will. What we should be seeking after first and foremost in prayer, at all times, is God Himself. Not that it's wrong to bring our earthly cares, needs and desires before God - He knows about all of them anyway, He cares about every detail and He loves when we come to Him with full acknowledgement that He is our Provider of everything and depend on Him in that way. He knows our needs even better than we do (and I often thank Him for that!) But when our prayers become primarily laundry lists of requests rather than a passionate aim to learn more about God, to know Him more intimately, to grow in relationship with Him and simply spend time with Him, we know we've gotten off track. It can be a subtle distinction and often hard to detect, but all the same the result is that we've stopped pursuing after His heart above all else and He becomes a means to an end rather than the end itself.
David asked God for one thing. Just to be with Him, in His Presence. To dwell in His house. To gaze upon His beauty. To seek Him. He understood that God Himself is the goal, He is the end. He experienced that God Himself satisfied all of his wants and needs and so much more, that there is no other and no greater thing to be attained. Better than life itself, as he says, is God and His love (Ps. 63:3). God absolutely captivated him, to the point where he need not ask for or pursue anything else. Indeed, as we all know, anything else in our lives that we pursue - material things, worldly things, anything apart from His kingdom - will not last and has no eternal value (1 John 2:17). And when we make them the focus of our prayers, when they overshadow our praise and thanksgiving and worship to Him, we are essentially saying to God, "I don't want You as much as I want what You can (and should) do for me." That's a tough pill to swallow! So why do we get so fixated on mere things? Jesus says that when we seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness, He adds all else to us. So all the things the world chases after, God adds to us supernaturally when we seek Him first! (Matt. 6:32-33) He meets all our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:19). So why get caught up chasing after those things that He promises to give us when we simply abide in Him? Even when it's hardest to believe, He always knows best!
I know I've been struggling with this lately, particularly trusting that God will come through and provide for a certain need I feel is becoming desperate. And while I wait around for that need to be met - trying to stay hopeful but increasingly discouraged by circumstances, worried that they won't change, and feeling a lingering sense of dissatisfaction because this particular thing has not yet been provided - God repeatedly whispers the same thing to me: one thing. In spite of anything and everything else in life...whatever it is we think we want or need at any given time...it's always one thing.
So it ultimately begs the question: who and what are we living for, really? What is our true motivation? Are we seeking after God's heart first, desiring above and in spite of all else to be with Him? That is our eternal destiny and the only worthwhile investment in this life. It's so easy and so tempting to get caught up in and distracted by the world we live in and all it claims to offer us. As A.W. Tozer says, "the world around us is at conflict with the Word within us." While we are in the world, we are not to be of it. So no matter what the world throws at us, no matter the obstacles Satan puts in our path to hinder us or lure us away, we will follow hard after God. We throw off everything else. We keep our eyes fixed on Him. We run the race (Heb. 12:1-2). Because when all is said and done, He really is all we need. He is our life. Apart from Him we have no good thing (Ps. 16:2).
"Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her." - Luke 10:41-42
I have now concentrated all my prayers into one, that I may die to self and live wholly to Him. - Charles Spurgeon
But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in Him...
--Philippians 3:7-9
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