Psalm 105:4 “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually.” This episode give five examples of how we can seek strength from the Lord instead of from the world. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Seek the Lord and His Strength
Psalm 105:4 “Seek the Lord and his strength; seek his presence continually.”
I thought this was a great verse because I know a lot of people that could really use some strength right now. When we are going through a difficult time we can often turn to things other than the Lord for strength. We might start having a drink when we get home from work, or after a busy day with the kids. We figure that will give us just enough strength to get through the night until the kids go to bed, or it will relax us enough to forget about work. However, often times one drink turns into two or three and then creates another problem. Sometimes we turn to our friends and family to get the strength that we need. However, they can only provide so much strength as they are human and on their own they have a finite amount of strength. We also might try and rely on our own strength to get us through. This is not enough. We need to seek the Lord’s strength.
How can we seek the Lord’s strength? First and foremost, we can ask for it. That may sound so simple, and it is, and yet so many of us forget to start there. We look everywhere else first. We get upset with the Lord for not giving us the strength we need and yet we never asked for it in the first place. God wants to help us. He is ready and willing. All He asks from us is for us to ask Him. Yes He knows you need help, and also He is a willing to let you try to fix it yourself if that is what you want to do. Have you ever done this with your children, co-workers, or siblings? You can see them struggling and you know they need help, but you don’t help them until they ask? You give them the chance to figure it out on their own. God does not do this to punish us, or because He doesn’t care. Quite the opposite, He does it because He does care. He cares about what we want and need. He cares about our growth and we grow when we do things that are difficult. However, He will step in as soon as we ask Him too.
Another way we can seek his strength is to seek the tools that He gave to us. We can dig into His word and find strength in the scriptures. We can also seek the various prayers He has given to us. There are so many prayers out there. You can say your own prayers, or you can find ones for your specific need. Sometimes we don’t know what to pray, especially if we are really upset. Finding a prayer that someone else wrote and praying it can take a lot of the pressure off. If you are struggling and you can’t find the words to say you can also just sit with the Lord. He doesn’t need us to say the right thing, He just wants us to seek Him. It says in Matthew 6:7 “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases as the Gentiles do; for they think that they will be heard because of their many words.” Our prayers don’t have to be long and drawn out, they don’t have to be perfect and eloquent, they don’t have to be exact. What God wants is for us to speak from the heart.
Another way we can seek the Lord is to attend Mass or a church service. Being part of a community is great because when you surround yourself with others that believe the same way you believe you feel more free to be yourself. You don’t have to worry that people will mock you or persecute you for your beliefs. You feel safe. Also, Mass is great because you get to worship God and participate in a sacrament. Mass is the ultimate way to seek God because you actually receive Jesus, through communion, into your body. At church services you get to hear the word of God and then the pastor gives a sermon on that word to make it more personal to each and every one of us. These sermons help us to take the word of God and apply it to our lives. The sermons help us understand the Word of God more.
Often times at mass there is also praise and worship music and that is another way to seek the Lord. I love to listen to praise and worship music. If I think back to the one thing I have done consistently since I discovered praise music in 2011 it would be to listen to it often. I didn’t know Christian music was a thing. Well, I knew we sang songs at church but I didn’t know that they had Christian music across all genres. I didn’t know you could listen to Christian music when you weren’t at church. Maybe this sounds silly, but I just didn’t know. When I first started I bought some CD’s from Anne Trufant a Christian singer that was at a conference I went to. I started to listen to her songs in my car and while I cleaned my house. I started to learn the words to the songs and then I would hear the song lyrics during the readings at church. Her songs had a lot of scripture in them and I didn’t even realize it. Now I have discovered an app called Spotify and it has all the music you could ever want on it and it is free if you don’t mind ads. However, if I was listening to the radio I would have ads anyway. On this app you can search for any type of music you like. It will also start to make mixes for you once the app sees what music you tend to listen to. I listen to a certain playlist call Big Life Mornings by Pamela Crim. She has chosen a bunch of really upbeat Christian music and I just love it.
Another way to seek God, which I briefly mentioned is to just sit with the Lord. At Catholic churches you can go to something called Eucharistic Adoration. This is the worship of the Eucharist outside of the Mass. The Eucharistic Host is displayed in a monstrance on the altar so that all can see and pray in the presence of Christ. The Eucharist contains the body and blood of Christ and so when you are in Eucharistic Adoration you are in the true presence of Christ. Do you have to go to Adoration to spend time with God? Absolutely not. God is everywhere, He is all around us and even inside of us in the form of the Holy Spirit. If you want to spend time with the Lord you can do this anywhere. According to Jesus, its good to go away from the crowd to pray. In Matthew 6:6 it says, “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.” The Bible also mentions several times how Jesus went off to the Mts. or somewhere else to be by himself to pray. Whatever works for you is great. Just spend time with the Lord. When I sit with the Lord, I will often write in my journal as if I am writing a letter to my Father in heaven as it is difficult for me to just sit in silence with Him. Again whatever works for you is perfect. There are no rules to spending time with our heavenly Father, whatever feels right to you.
I have mentioned five ways that we can seek the Lord. First, ask the Lord for His strength. Second, seek the tools He has given to us. Third, attend Mass or a church service. Fourth, listen to praise and worship music. Fifth, spend time with the Lord, just the two of you There are many other ways that you can seek strength from the Lord. Try these ways and see which ones you like best. One of the many things about God is that He knows we are all unique and what works for one of us may not work for another. I promise if you turn to God and seek your strength from Him instead of from the world, He will give you more strength than you need. I have seen people get through incredibly difficult, impossible situations because they relied on God instead of themselves or the world. Lean in, God is waiting.
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord help us turn to you for strength. Help us to see that the world can’t help us like you can. Help us to make good choices when searching for strength and not fall into bad habits that we will have to fix later. Lord, if anyone is turning to bad habits for their strength right now, I ask that you send the Holy Spirit to convict them of it and help them turn back to you. Lord you are the Lord of Lords and the King of Kings. You are the resurrection and the life. We are so grateful for all that you do. We love you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you on Monday. Have a blessed weekend!