Seek God’s face and draw close to Him, because through Jesus you can experience radiant, intimate communion with the Trinity and see His glory revealed.
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SHAUNA: I’m Shauna with Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. Thank you for joining us.
JONI: Can you imagine cultivating a close relationship with someone whose face you cannot see? It would be impossible. A person’s face reveals the essence of who they are. Their personality is conveyed through the eyes, and facial expressions, and their smile. And you know what? When we want to cultivate closeness with God, we ask the same thing. In fact, Psalm 27 puts it in writing. It says, “Your face, Lord, do I seek. Hide not your face from me. Turn not your servant away…your face, Lord, do I seek.” And boy, is that true. There’s something deep down within us as believers; something at the core of our being that longs to connect with God that intimately, that we even yearn to see his face. It’s the way it was in the beginning, when we were created. And I mean, way back. Adam and Eve enjoyed a precious face-to-face intimacy with God as they walked with him in the garden. But when they sinned, it ruined everything. Because of Adam and Eve’s rebellion, God hid turned around and hid His face, the curse fell, and humans slinked away into shame and darkness.
Yet many who came after Adam and Eve – they still longed for that clean, clear-through face-to-face nearness with God. Even when Moses, the humblest man on earth tried to seek God’s face, the Almighty warned him in Exodus 33, “You cannot see my face, for no one may see me and live…You will see my back; but my face must not be seen.” Now, please understand that in this prohibition, God was being very kind to Moses. God told him “No” because he knew that His light would kill. And from Moses on, it was the same with almost every prophet.
However, when God’s Son arrived on the scene; when Jesus came and announced that “I am the light of the world,” everything changed. Jesus reversed the curse, He shone forth his Father’s radiance and gave the light of life to redeemed people. The light of Jesus would not kill; it would expose our evil deeds and bring forth life and hope. Although His flesh veiled his heavenly glory, the followers of Jesus Christ saw his divine essence in his face, albeit through a glass darkly. The Bible says, “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” Now that is amazing because the good news of Jesus Christ affords you something that people under the Old Covenant – the Old Testament never thought possible. You as a believer can have an intimacy with the entire Trinity. And because of the Gospel of Christ, you have His blood-bought assurance that “when He appears we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him as He is [it says that in 1 John 3].” We shall see Him. We shall see His face, glorified and radiant.
Oh, friend, I want you to join me in getting ready for that wonderful day when we shall see Jesus as He is. So, open the Word and bask in the light of Christ. Get to know His essence, His character as you read the Gospels. Love Him more than you did yesterday. Don’t be timid, say His name boldly. Respond more quickly to the Spirit’s warnings. Be happy to go the extra mile. Love God until it becomes the biggest thing in your life. In other words, seek His face because He longs to shine His light on you. Like Psalm 34 says, “Those who look to Him are radiant.”
© Joni and Friends