Cindy Powell

“One thing I have asked 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

” And Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.” –Luke 10:41-42

“But one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.” -Phil. 3:13-14

One thing.

Just one thing. So simple. So beautiful. So powerful.

If I only get one prayer, one priority, one thing to press on for … this is what I want it to be:

I want to pray for one thing. I want to pray that above all, I would dwell – I would abide – in His presence. That I would gaze upon His beauty. I think the key is to simply position our hearts and ask. If you can’t honestly say He is what you want most right now, you don’t have to fake it. Instead, ask Him to reveal Himself to you in such a way that you’ll be ruined for anything less. Pray for such a revelation of His love that you desperately want Him to become your one thing — now and always.

I want to prioritize one thing. I want to go beyond asking. I want position myself in His presence – even when it doesn’t seem to be the convenient or logical thing to do. We don’t have any record of Jesus ever asking Mary toss everything aside and come sit with Him – no, she put herself in His presence. She made space for herself in His presence. She understood there was an opportunity to be with Him and she didn’t want to miss it. I want to do that same. I want to prioritize His presence by purposefully putting myself in situations where I can “sit at His feet.”

I want to press on for one thing. I don’t want to give up. I don’t want to stop short. I want to press on to lay hold of God’s promises. You should too! But first, make sure you know His promises – both general and specific. How can you press on if you don’t know what fullness looks like? If you don’t know what you’re pressing on for? Study the scriptures. Find out who you are in Him and to Him …. then press on to lay hold of that for which He laid hold of you.

And what He laid hold of you for is marvelous: You are made in His image—and a new creation in Christ, His thoughts for you alone are more numerous than the sand … and every one of His thoughts toward you are good, His plans are to proper you and not to harm you, for shalom and not for evil, in Him you have all and abound, His grace is always sufficient for you, He is always with you and He will never leave you, He is always working on your behalf and when He works, no one can reverse it, He is always for you and if God is for you, who can be against you? He is your inheritance, the boundary lines have fallen to you in pleasant place, even more you are the joy set before Him—you His rich and glorious inheritance, You are His beloved one and His desire is always for you.

Always. These are just a few of His great and precious promises that we press on to lay hold of but …there are many more. Including one more that’s really important. In Luke 10 when Jesus said Mary chose the better part, He also said something else that is pretty astounding … He said “it wont’ be taken away from her.” 

Do you understand the ramifications of that? Nothing can separate you from His presence when that is where you choose to be. I’m not talking about always having powerful feelings of His presence – those come and go – I’m talking about knowing the reality of His presence. Knowing the promise of His presence. The sacred privilege of abiding in His presence when we choose to be a person of one thing. When we choose to draw near, we will dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of our lives and nothing can ever separate us from His love.

It’s the one thing we can be sure of.

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Here is the podcast link for this week’s devotion:  Monday Morning Musings – One Thing

And the Sound Cloud Link: