"One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek Him in His temple." Psalm 27:4
When I found out that my COVID-19 test was positive, I can’t say that I was either surprised or saddened. In the week leading up to that day, the Lord had really been drawing me to Himself and I was craving time alone with Him. I have loved my community here on the Mercy Ship, but I have also realized how much I have grown used to, and even dependent upon, my time alone with God throughout the past few years. I knew that along with my positive COVID-19 test would come seven to ten days of isolation, so upon receiving the result I was almost immediately met with a sense of relief in knowing that God had already bundled a blessing into what could be considered “bad news” to some.
So I packed my bag for the week and into an isolation cabin I went.
Before I dive too deeply into the following, I want to make it clear that words will never encapsulate the raw beauty of this experience, nor the depths of that which God has walked me through in these recent days. But with the Lord’s help, my hope is to give you a glimpse into these things that are still overwhelming my heart this morning. In fact, though I originally began to type out the revelations of each step of this ten day journey, I have decided to only share the simply profound truth that God left me with as a conclusion to my time in isolation, what I now call my “isolation revelation.”
To God be the glory.
It was surely by no mistake that a few days before I was sent into isolation I picked up a book called “The Practice of the Presence of God.” This book consists of letters, conversations, sayings, and the “spiritual maxims’ of Brother Lawrence, a man from the seventeenth century who was known for his intimacy with God. As I read through these recordings, and even more so in the days to follow, I sat with this idea of what it looked like to walk through each day in active acknowledgement of the presence of our Lord, just as this man seemed to do throughout his every day.
Though the book was laced with examples of what it looked like to live in awareness of the presence of God, one passage in particular really stuck out to me; a passage in which I think we can all walk forward with in an application of some sort.
“At the beginning of my duties, I said to God with a son-like trust, ‘My God, since You are with me, and since it is Your will that I should apply my mind to these outward things, I pray that You will give me the grace to remain with You and keep company with You. But so that my work may be better, Lord, work with me; receive my work and possess all my affections.’ Finally, during my work, I continued to speak to Him in a familiar way, offering Him my little services, and asking for His grace. At the end of my work, I examined how I had done it, and if I found any good in it, I thanked God. If I noticed errors, I asked His forgiveness for them, and without becoming discouraged, I resolved to change and began anew to remain with God as if I had never strayed. So, by picking myself up after my falls, and by doing many little acts of faith and love, I came to a state in which it would be as difficult for me not to think of God as it had been difficult to accustom myself to thinking of Him at the beginning.”
Practicing the presence of God is not solely about inviting Him into our day, our work or our task in the beginning. Nor is it just about reflecting upon His hand at work in hindsight. It’s about walking with Him in every step, from beginning to end and all throughout the in-between. It’s about acknowledging that even when He leads us to “apply our minds to these outward things”, that we can do so in a way that we also remain aware of His presence – even there!
As my thoughts stirred surrounding this practice of the presence of God, I was reminded of a sermon that I heard in the beginning of the year. The pastor spoke about the importance of spending time with God each day. He talked about this intentional space for quiet time. A space outside of a Bible reading plan or studying the Word of God. Even a space away from a specific time in prayer. He encouraged us to read a Psalm out loud and just meditate upon it, leaving room for God to speak as we simply dwelt in His presence.
I began the year implementing this practice into my every day, but just as many new years resolutions fade, this quiet space that had been created got pushed out of my practice as soon as my environment and routine shifted. Though the book had reminded me that it’s not solely about inviting the Lord in at the beginning, I knew that it’s a good step in the right direction and having recalled the fruitfulness of that practice at the beginning of the year, it was something that I wanted to begin to re-implement in a new way.
After a brief search, I came across a podcast that fit exactly what I was looking for called the First15 Devotional. It’s a very simple devotional that brings forth one verse to focus upon and leaves a lot of room for prayer and stillness. On day seven of my isolation, I woke and listened to one of the recent devotionals that had been published. It was titled, “God is good.”
The verse of focus: Psalm 27:4.
“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.”
As soon as the words of this Psalm entered my ears God began to bring each piece of what He had been showing me throughout the week before me, and placed it perfectly within the puzzle of my heart. Though the podcast carried on through my headphones, God was already long gone in taking my mind down a path of His own.
Every single step that the Lord had guided me in over the previous six days of isolation was utilized and like a tidal wave, the Lord continued His sentence as He began to open my eyes to the ways that each piece fit into this isolation revelation. I began writing in my journal, eventually switching over to typing on my laptop because my pen just simply couldn’t keep up.
“Remember your study on righteousness?”
“Good, that fits here.”
“Remember your study on calling?”
“Perfect. Place it right here.”
“Remember what you read in that book, ‘The Practice of the Presence of God’?”
“Brother Lawrence was a good example of this.”
“Remember the new perspective I gave you in looking at the cross of Jesus Christ?”
“That connects right here.”
“Oh yeah, remember that conversation you had up on deck 8?”
“That’s what I’m trying to show you about this.”
Every single thing from my time spent in isolation clicked into one simply profound conclusion that came to light in the hearing of Psalm 27:4. A conclusion that may sound so obvious to you today, yet there I sat on the floor of my cabin, completely overwhelmed by the beauty of this truth.
Let me take a moment to bring three other scriptures to your attention here, all of which were components of this flow of thoughts from my week in review.
A little further into Psalm 27, we read “My heart says of you, ‘Seek his face!’ Your face, Lord, I will seek.’”
Ezekiel 36:26, a scripture that had been shared in my Sunday meeting that week says, “I will give you a new heart and put a new Spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.”
And in Jeremiah 29:13 we read this promise of the Lord, “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.”
Brother and sisters. I want to invite you to grab hold of this simply profound revelation that the Lord has laid upon my heart and to walk with it as the Lord leads you.
There is ONE THING that we are to seek and that is the presence of the Lord our God. It’s that simple.
God himself has given us these hearts of flesh; and not just hearts of flesh, but hearts that desire to seek His face. AND. Not only are our hearts delight in the seeking of the face of the Lord, but we are told that when we seek the Lord with our whole heart, the heart that He has given us, we WILL find Him! What greater a promise could there be?!
And it is with this in mind that the Lord reminded me that it is not by persuasive conversations nor the observation of good deeds that the lost will see the greatest light from the children of God. Rather it is through the radiance of our love for the Lord as we set our gazes upon Him that others will see God and desire to seek Him also.
It is simple, perhaps even obvious to some, yet profound and incredibly foundational for our understanding.
As I was typing all of these things out as quickly as I could, God continued to remind me that we all too often make it much too complicated. We get distracted by life. We get distracted by the world. We get distracted by work and by people, even our brothers and sisters in Christ at times. We get distracted by trying to be “a Christian”. We even become distracted in doing the things that we feel that God has called us to do as our focus shifts from Him to the task before us, simply because it is a good thing being done for God.
Brother. Sister. Dwell in this with me. Rid yourself of the distractions. Unload the unnecessary weight that you have been carrying. Stop those thoughts of feeling like you have to do all of these things for God.
Our job is simple. We are only to seek ONE THING. We are to seek the face of the Lord above all else and to seek Him with our whole heart. A single devotion. It is that simple.
And as we see in Jeremiah 29:13, we will find Him when we seek Him with our whole heart.
I want to encourage you today. Every single time that I have come before the Lord to simply dwell in His presence in the days since my ‘isolation revelation’, He has met me in the stillness. And it is in that space that the Lord has lavished me with the abundance of His love. I have been overwhelmed by His goodness day after day after day and some days, so much so that I don’t want to interact with the world. I just want to stay still, sitting at the feet of my Lord. Soaking in His simple, beautiful presence.
“One thing I ask from the Lord, this only do I seek: that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to gaze on the beauty of the Lord and to seek him in his temple.” Psalm 27:4
