PURSUING GOD’S GLORY (2)

“Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.” (Psalm 73:25 NKJV)

The pursuit of glory demands undivided focus on God. We must groom our desire for the Presence of God to overshadow our desire for any other thing in life. The Prophet Haggai described God as the “Desire of All Nations” (Haggai 2:7) because in Him lies the ultimate satisfaction to our quest for fulfillment. My mother used to tell me that a man who attempts to pursue two rabbits at the same time would catch none of them. The same fate awaits any person who tries to pursue God alongside any other interest. We must pursue God to the exclusion of every other thing on earth.  Only with such an exclusive pursuit can we begin to perceive His glory and be drawn closer to His Presence.  God Himself set a standard on how we must seek Him if we really desire to find Him saying; “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13 NKJV). Seeking God with all our hearts imply two things to me. First, we must seek Him for who He is and not merely for what He gives.  In this, Job was our perfect model. At the height of his suffering, he declared absolute faith and unflagging hope in God saying, “Though He slays me, yet will I trust Him.  Even so, I will defend my own ways before Him” (Job 13:15 NKJV). As far as Job was concerned, God was the only option for better or for worse, in good time and in bad times.  For Job, it was either God or nothing else.

The second implication of seeking God with all our hearts is that we must seek Him at the exclusion of all other interests.  For example, Jesus declared in the Gospels, “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon” (Matthew 6:24 NKJV).   This verse certainly did not say you could not experience heavenly glory and earthly glory at the same time.  To imply that would undermine the overarching desire of God for His kingdom to come to us and His will be done on earth as it is done in heaven.  God’s unflinching desire is that we prosper on earth and be in good health even as our soul prospers, “because as He is, so are we in this world” (1 John 4:17).

Many people find it difficult to understand God’s demand for exclusive pursuit of Him by His children. Much like Nicodemus who did not understand what Christ meant by being born-again, we ask, must we forget every other thing necessary for life in order to encounter His glory? Our dilemma is understandable but the Scripture gives us enough guideline to navigate through this successfully. Paul in Colossians reveals, “For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him” (Colossians 1:16 NKJV). Three prepositions in this verse give us some light on how to pursue God exclusively while remaining functionally relevant on earth. They are, by...through ...and for... As everything was created by Him, through Him, and for Him, so must we do everything by His power, through His means, and for His ends.  Here is the guiding question we must ask in everything we do, by whose power am I doing this, through whose means, to whose end?  Anything you do that is not by God’s power, through God’s means, and for God’s end will take you away from the exclusive pursuit of Him. Hence Paul counsels us, “Let every detail in your lives—words, actions, whatever—be done in the name of the Master, Jesus, thanking God the Father every step of the way” (Colossians 3:17 Message).

The ultimate value of the kingdom of heaven is the Presence of God.  The ultimate value of every human pursuit on earth will be to attract and retain the Presence of God.  The psalmist understood this so he exclaimed, “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You.”  Heaven without God is not worth the clamour. Earthly glory without God is mere delusion.  Therefore, let with pray with the Psalmist, “When You said, “Seek My face,” My heart said to You, “Your face, Lord, I will seek.”  Do not hide Your face from me...” (Psalm 27: 8 NKJV)