Remember Who God is #3.
1 Chronicles 16:11-12 – He is a God of strength, wonders, miracles, and fairness, but most important of all, He is SEEKABLE.
Since we have two verses again, let’s look at them in separate blogs.
1 Chronicles 16:11 in some other versions:
“Look to the LORD and His strength; seek His face always.” (NIV)
“Search for the LORD and for His strength; continually seek Him.” (NLT)
“Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face evermore!” (NKJV)
The context of 1 Chronicles 16 is the installation of the Ark of the Covenant in a tent (tabernacle) in Jerusalem. These verses are part of a psalm of praise and thanksgiving written for the event by King David.
The common Hebrew poetry technique of repeating a statement using different words is in evidence here.
To SEEK Yahweh (the LORD)
means the same as,
To SEEK His prescence.
The modifier is to seek ALWAYS, and then the thing Israel is to seek is God’s STRENGTH, and the implication is… INSTEAD of their own.
The context helps us to understand that the mercy seat on the lid of the ark is where God can be sought AND FOUND by Israel, and where His strength can be obtained via prayer and supplication.
The Ark of the Covenant was designed by God, but built by Israel. It was designed to be the place where a portion of God actually lived with the Nation as a continual sign of His Presence and His blessing.
We have a similar privilege through Jesus Christ. The part of God that lives with each of us is His Holy Spirit and the ‘seat’ where He stays is the throne of our heart. As a result of the indwelling of God’s Spirit, Paul could write:
Do we really believe that? Do we always take the time to seek God/Jesus Christ first and receive His strength to do the things that He wants us to do?
A foundational verse about faith is Hebrews 11:6:
There are several aspects of this verse that relate to seeking God. First we must come to Him in faith. If we don’t believe that He even exists, then we won’t bother coming to Him. Secondly, we must truly believe that God will grant our requests. In other words, our faith in Him pleases God, however, He rewards us because that is His nature–to love us as His children.
That’s also what ‘waiting on the Lord’ is all about. When we’ve prayed and asked God/Jesus to do something that we realize we cannot do in our own strength, we have to TRUST that He will answer our prayer and wait for it.
So, when you’re having a problem and don’t know how you’re going to deal with it, remember:
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