"show me your ways o lord, teach me your paths, guide me in your truth and teach me."
"one thing i ask of the lord and 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 holy temple."
"i keep asking that the god of our lord jesus christ, the glorious father, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation so that you may know him better."
"show me your face, let me hear your voice; for your voice is sweet and your face is lovely."
during my prayer time this morning i was consumed with a sweetly quiet reality. the undertone of scripture was illuminated in a gently welcoming manner, thereby captivating my worship and offering spacious room to rest.
throughout scripture we are faced with boundless invitations. but invitations for what exactly? i think our western christendom has misused, abused, and distorted the word of god to fit comfortably into our life suffocating consumerist mentality. we fashion these words so that we are justified in our hunger to obtain more stuff, knowledge ("love surpasses knowlege"!), popularity, control, etc. as shoppers of the spirit we pray and seek the face of christ with deeply embedded selfish motives. we do not explore the book of truth in order to fall in love with love himself, rather we delve to gain clarity, and certainty in our lives. we are always wanting more.
but if one dares to look, to truly dissect into the envelope that holds all the invitations addressed to us; the beloved ones of christ, what you would find is the very opposite of what it is we think we need to be searching for. what we will find is the foundational desire of every human heart - a yearning that has been stifled by our counterfeit, immediate cravings. what we find is a god who is hungry for our affections and who relentlessly longs for us to receive, to ultimately receive him. this speaks of the vulnerability of christ as passionate lover who extends an invitation to his beloved to say yes to a partnership with himself.
scripture is one giant thread of beckonings from the god of love to his beloved. show me your ways o lord. the ways of your heart. the ways of your character. the ways of your very existence. teach me your path. the path that you, not my culture, chooses to walk. teach me the journeys that you embark upon, the road you travel (which is often times less). give to us wisdom and revelation so that we may know YOU better, not know more about you - but who you are. and above all things i long to gaze upon your beauty.
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