Seek out the LORD and His strength; seek His face always.Seek Yahweh and his strength. Seek his face forever more.Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually.Seek ye Jehovah and his strength; Seek his face evermore.
4 sermons cite this verse
… 1 Chronicles chapter 16. Seek the Lord and his strength. Seek his presence continually. Seek his presence. I mean, go after it. There's things that you're going to do every day. Every day I drink coffee. Where are the coffee lovers at? If you drink coffee, come on. At our church, we're a coffee drinking church. If you love matcha, we have a deliverance ministry. We're going to pray that spirit at you. I drink coffee every day. I eat and sleep every day. I try and get a smooch from Julia every single day. I discipline my kids every day. But every day I try and get into God's presence because I know that is the only thing that will satisfy. That is the only thing that will fulfill. That is the only thing that I need. I need his presence. As a deer pandeth for the water brooks, so my soul longs for his presence. You didn't come to Zoe today to see a worship team. You came so that when we worship, his presence falls like rain. …
Without any heavenly seed remaining in them, men may, whenever they fall in among the godly, continue all their lives to talk like saints. They may, for their credit sake, tell of what they have experienced: but their deeds will not hold.—They may continue to tell of their inward experiences, and yet live in the neglect of secret prayer, and of other duties. II. I would take occasion from this doctrine to exhort all to persevere in the duty of prayer. This exhortation is much insisted on in the word of God. It is insisted on in the Old Testament; 1 Chron. xvi. 11. “Seek the Lord and his strength, seek his face continually.” Isa. lxii. 7. “Ye that make mention of the Lord, keep not silence;” i. e. be not silent as to the voice of prayer, as is manifest by the following words, Isa. lxii. 7. “and give him no rest till he establish, and till he make Jerusalem a praise in the earth.” Israel of old is reproved for growing weary of the duty of prayer. Isa. xliii. 22. “But thou hast not called upon me, O Jacob, thou hast been weary of me, O Israel.” Perseverance in the duty of prayer is very much insisted on in the New Testament; as Luke xviii. at the beginning, Luke xvii. 1. “A man ought always to pray and not to faint;” i. e. not to be discouraged or weary of the duty; but should always continue in it. Again. Luke xxi. 36. “Watch ye therefore, and pray always.” We have the example of Anna the prophetess set before us, Luke ii. 36, &c. who, though she had lived to be more than a hundred years old, yet was not weary of this duty. It is said, Luke ii.37 “She departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings and prayers night and day.” Cornelius also is commended for his constancy in this duty. It is said, that he prayed to God always; Acts x. 2. The apostle Paul in his epistles, insists very much on constancy in this duty; Rom.xii.12. “Continuing instant in prayer.” Eph. vi. 18, 19. “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance.” Col. iv. 2. “Continue in prayer, and watch in the same.” 1 Thess. v. 17. “Pray without ceasing.” To the same effect the apostle Peter, 1 Pet. iv. 7. “Watch unto prayer.”—Thus abundantly the Scriptures insist upon it, that we should persevere in the duty of prayer; which shows that it is of very great importance that we should persevere. If the contrary be the manner of hypocrites, as hath been shown in the doctrine, then surely we ought to beware of this leaven. …
Here, too, let me mention another sin of a similar character into which communicants are apt to fall; viz. a forgetfulness, after communicating, that they have communicated. Even when we resist the coldness which frequent communion may occasion, and strive to possess our minds in as profound a seriousness as we felt when the rite was new to us, even then there is often a painful difference between our feelings before we have attended it, and after. We are diligent in preparation, we are careless in retrospect; we dismiss from our memory what we cherished in our expectations; we forget that we ever hoped and feared. But consider; when we have solemn thoughts about Holy Communion only till we have come to it, what does this imply, but that we imagine that we have received the benefit of it once for all, as a thing done and over, and that there is nothing more to seek? This is but a formal way of worshipping; as if we had wiped off a writing which was against us, and there was an end of the matter. But blessed are those servants who are ever expecting Him, who is ever coming to them; whether He come "at even, or at midnight, or at cock-crowing, or in the morning;" whereas those who first come to Him for the gift of grace, and then neglect to wait for its progressive accomplishment in their hearts, how profanely they act! it is as if to receive the blessing in mockery, and then to cast it away. Surely, after so great a privilege, we ought to behave ourselves as if we had partaken some Divine food and medicine (if great things may be compared to ordinary), which, in its own inscrutable way, and in its own good time, will "prosper in the thing whereunto God sends it"--the fruit of the tree of life which Adam forfeited, which had that virtue in it, that it was put out of his reach in haste, lest he should take and eat, and live for ever. How earnest, then, should be our care lest this gracious treasure which we carry within us should be lost by our own fault, by the unhealthy excitements, or the listless indolence, to which our nature invites us! "Quench not the Spirit," says the Apostle; surely our privilege is a burden heavy to bear, before it turn to a principle of life and strength, till Christ be formed in us perfectly; and we the while, what cause have we to watch, and pray, and fulfil all righteousness, till the day dawn, and the day-star arise in our hearts! …
from—whether from among the condemned in Hell, or from among the beatified in Heaven. Let them sit, let even those who are in Hells it and judge upon the matter. And if they could for once speak honestly, they would tell you that it is a dreadful thing to despise Christ, now that they have come to see things in a true light—now that they are lost forever, forever, forever—now that they are crushed with knowledge and feeling which have come too late to be profitable— now they wish that they had listened to the ministrations of the Truth of God, to the proclamations of the Gospel! If they could have a sane mind back again, they would shriek, "Oh, for one more Sabbath! Oh, to listen once more to an honest preacher, though his words might be clumsy and uncouth! Oh, to hear a voice once more say, 'Come to Jesus while the Day of Mercy lasts!' Oh, to be once more pressed to come to the marriage feast—once more bid to look to Jesus and to live!" I tell you Sirs, some of you who make so light of Sundays and think preaching is but a pastime, so that you come here to hear us as you would go to hear some fiddler on a weeknight—I tell you, Sirs, the lost in Hell reckon these things at a very different rate! And so will you before long, when another preacher, with skeleton fingers, shall talk to you upon your deathbed. Ah, then you will see that we were in earnest and you were the players—then you will comprehend that what we said to you demanded earnest, immediate attention, though, alas, you would not give it—and so played false to your own soul, committed spiritual suicide and went your way like a bullock to the slaughter—to be the murderers of your own spirits! …