MERRY MONDAY BY PARRIS BAILEY- “One thing have I desired of The Lord, that will I seek after” Psalm 27:4
I am sure many of us can relate to traveling for hours on end. I am talking about flying overseas, across the world to those far away places, going through airport security and sitting in endless uncomfortable airplane seats. And I could go on about eating fish eye soup, or some snail, or other nasty food that the culture insists we eat. Bathing out of a trashcan (it was clean) jumping into planes that had flies, trains with animals on board and armed guards pointing rifles at us. Sometimes, a lot of times, I would just close my eyes and pretend I was back in my own bed however far away I was. Despite all the hassle and insanity, God would always show up somewhere somehow. I smile when I think of all the countries that Frank and I have been. It wasn’t the beauty of the place, the artwork or necessarily the edifice. He always showed up! He broke through time, place and people in all the weirdness and exhaustion. David desired that one thing and he was captivated by His beauty. Oh to have the abiding consciousness of the Divine presence! It is what we live for or are you living out of your “soul realm”? Learning how to commune with God is vital to our Christian way of life. Listen to this quote: “Blessed are they who are delivered from the misery of multiplied and transient aims which break life into fragments. But by steadfastly and continually following that one great desire, which binds all the days each to each, and in its single simplicity encloses and hallows and unifies the else distracting things” (Expositor’s)
Sooner or later, you as a Christian, will have to lay aside all your anger that “this didn’t happen or God didn’t come through. Maybe you spend everyday striving and facing unrest over past regrets. Why don’t you just push all that stuff from all the table and begin to just say, “give me one thing LORD, to see your beauty! He will surely come!
“There have been many bereavements in my life. I have been emptied from vessel to vessel. But one thing has never failed — one thing makes me feel that my life has been one; it has calmed my joys, it has soothed my sorrows, it has guided me in difficulty, it has strengthened me in weakness. It is the presence of God — a faithful and loving God. Yes, brethren, the presence of God is not only light, it is unity. It gives unity to the heart that believes it — unity to the life that is conformed to it. It was the presence of God in David’s soul that enabled him to say, “One thing have I desired of the Lord; “and in St, Paul’s that enabled him to say, “This one thing I do.” George Wagner, in the “Wanderings of the Children of Israel,” 1862. (Treasury of David)
Give us such an appetite!