Glory in his holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice. Look to the Lord and his strength; seek his face always. Remember the wonders he has done. 1 Chronicles 16:10-12
Last time we finished with a question: How do we eagerly seek God? Today’s verse gives us a good list of things to do to prime the pumps of our praise:
“Glory in His holy name” Repeat His name often; repeat it over and over. Jesus is the name above all names (Phil 2:9,10). And there is power in His name. Even power to bring us into adoration. It’s in His name that every knee bows—even our overwhelmed hearts bow to His name.
“…let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice” Pursue joyfulness. “For the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh 8:10). Our culture pursues disgruntlement with all its heart. It values taking offense at everything. It’s hard to worship Jesus when we’re restless and dissatisfied. We need to instead, focus on God’s goodness to us. His love for us. His watchfulness. That’s how we cultivate joyfulness.
“…Look to the Lord and His strength” Call on His enabling strength. He wants to commune with us in worship. In this world we are going to have trouble (Jn 16:33). But Jesus has overcome the world and promises to give us peace. We turn out troubles and worries over to Him (1 Pet 5:7), and He gives us peace because our hearts and minds are focused on Him (Is 26:3).
“…seek His face always” Keep persevering. Keep seeking. We will find Him (Jer 29:13). There are numerous passages of Scripture that tell us ‘Seek the Lord’, Seek His face, Fix eyes of our attention on Him, Consider Him. Look unto Him. Though there are differences, all of these admonitions provide us with similar direction. Fixing our eyes, setting our hearts and similar biblical terms mean pursuing prayerfully and relentlessly. This is a larger topic I want to save for next time.
“…Remember the wonders He has done” Recount all the miracles God has done, especially miracles He has done for you, or in your presence. These are the signs and wonders God gives us to soften stubborn hearts and it stirs up within us an awe of Him that fans the flames of our worship.
It’s like the spirit of worship is fire within us, and the fuel that causes the fire to burn is our wonder and awe of Jesus. The more fuel, the hotter the fire. The more we seek God—the more we focus relentlessly on Jesus, the hotter our worship.