Just One Thing

If you could ask only one thing of God, what would it be?

In Psalm 27, verse 4, David says this:

• One thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after (seek means to crave, long for, pursue, go after); that I may dwell in the house of the Lord (dwell in the presence of God) all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to enquire (meditate) in his temple. (Psalm 27:4)

One thing - THE ONE THING - that David craved was to dwell - to constantly live and remain - in the presence of God, to see His face, to behold His beauty. I thought about that for a decent amount of time, and read and reread it. I took a serious look at my own heart. Could I say this was what my heart truly desires, longs for, craves, seeks? Today, after 20-some years of walking with God, I can honestly say, yes - this is the truest desire of my heart. If I could ask only one thing of God, right now, this would be it.

I probably could not have said that even four months ago - maybe even more recently than that. But in the past month or so, God has been pushing me, stretching me, and bringing me to a new level with him (which I've mentioned in prior posts), and in that process, I've come to realize that knowing God and being in his presence is the ONE thing that I value most. In his presence, I find so many things - peace, comfort, patience, stability, protection, and strength that I do not have on my own. If I do not seek God, if I try to go it alone, I feel like I'm floundering. I feel uncomfortable, nervous or anxious of failure, uncertain of the next step, and often frustrated because there's no flow to what I'm doing. I am beginning to realize, through this day to day learning process God has me on right now, how much I really NEED him. I am helpless without him.

So my next step is to grow to the place where I just REMAIN in God's presence. I'm not at that point in my life yet, although I would love to be, and I believe some day I will get there. So many times throughout each day I find myself in the middle of a near-crisis situation - losing my temper, feeling sorry for myself, feeling frustrated or overwhelmed or overcome. And some days, even when it gets to this point, I forget to step back from what's going on around me and turn to God. And other days, when I do try to seek Him, I feel like I can't find Him, or I can't seem to connect in my heart. So I guess I am going to have to take full advantage of every chance I get - those times that I truly find myself in quality time with God - and make David's prayer my prayer, that I might remain in His presence every day of my life, that I might see His face, know Him and understand just how amazing and beautiful He is.

This will be the one thing I ask of God.