Cindy Powell

When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.” –Psalm 27:8 NKJV

I’d sung the song dozens of times before. But this time was different. This time as I sang the words, I was no longer sure the words were true. This time, there was one line that hit my heart.

Hard.

“I live only to seek your face.”*

Really? Do I? Do I live only to seek his face?

My heart sunk. I hadn’t been so unsure of my motives in years. Was I really living solely for him? Was I living only to seek his face?

Or was I living for me? For my comfort? For my security? For my pleasure?

What did it even mean to live only to seek his face?

I did the only thing I knew to do.

I asked him.

Then I waited … and waited … and waited some more.

When he finally answered, it was with some questions of his own …

What does it mean to “live”?

What does “only” mean?

What does it mean to “seek my face”?

To live: To remain alive

Only: Solely, exclusively, without others

Seek his face: To seek his presence; to behold his beauty

So, am I alive to seek his presence and behold his beauty solely and exclusively above all others?

It was a slightly different question. With a slightly better answer.

But I still needed more assurance. In his kindness and mercy, he went on …

When I say, “Seek my face”–what does your heart say?

I was able to answer honestly …

My heart says, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”

Why do I make it so hard? I don’t seek him perfectly. I don’t seek him constantly. I get distracted. I get off track. I lose my focus. I get too full of me. But when he says, “Seek my face …”

My heart says, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”

So yeah, I am alive to seek his presence and behold his beauty solely and exclusively above all others.

And I live only to seek his face.

Thank you, Lord, for your tender mercy. Thank you for the grace that draws me to seek your face and for the love that enables me to love you. Thank you, Jesus, for seeing and delighting in every tiny movement of my heart toward you. You’ve never once demanded perfection–you know I’m incapable of it. You desire only the one thing I so long to give you–a heart after your own. ~Amen

*From the song “Light of Your Face” by Misty Edwards