Seeking God’s Presence | Annette Askew

Seeking the One Thing That Truly Satisfies

There is a question worth sitting with for a moment: What are you actually seeking?

Not what you think you should be seeking, or what sounds like the right answer in a room full of people who might be watching. What are you genuinely, consistently, daily pursuing with your time, your energy, and your attention?

It is an uncomfortable question, but it is one of the most important ones a person can ask. And it is the very question that Psalm 27 drives straight to the heart of.

Unwavering Confidence in a Shaking World

Psalm 27 opens with a declaration that sounds almost defiant in its boldness. The psalmist David describes God as his light and his salvation, and from that foundation asks a simple but staggering question: whom shall he fear? He goes on to describe armies besieging him, enemies advancing, war breaking out on every side. And yet his conclusion is not panic. It is confidence.

That kind of confidence is not rooted in circumstances. Circumstances were clearly not in David's favor. His confidence was rooted in something unchanging, something no enemy could dismantle. His confidence was in God.

This is worth pausing on, because most of us are tempted to place our confidence in people, in plans, in our own ability to manage situations. And those things will fail us. Family and friends, as much as we love them and as much as they love us, are human. They will let us down at some point, not because they are bad people, but because they are people. God, however, does not operate within those limitations. He will never leave. He will never forsake. He is the stronghold that holds when everything else gives way.

The One Thing

In verse four of Psalm 27, David narrows his entire spiritual longing down to a single request. Out of everything he could have asked for, he asks for one thing: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of his life, to gaze upon the beauty of God, and to seek him in his temple.

That word seek deserves attention. It does not mean a casual glance in God's direction. It does not mean working him into your schedule when things slow down. To seek, in the full weight of the word, means to crave, to pursue, to go after something with everything you have. It is the kind of seeking that rearranges priorities, that lays things aside, that refuses to be satisfied with anything less.

And David was not asking to visit. He was asking to move in permanently. Not a guest room, not a brief stay, but full residency. He wanted to know God the way a lifelong resident knows a home, every corner, every room, every detail.

The good news for those of us living on this side of the cross is that we do not have to travel to a temple to find God's presence. Through the Holy Spirit, his presence is available to us at any moment, in any place. The access David longed for, we have been given freely.

Martha, Mary, and the Distracted Life

In Luke chapter 10, there is a scene that feels uncomfortably familiar. Jesus comes to the home of two sisters, Martha and Mary. Martha immediately gets to work, busy with preparations, managing the details, keeping everything running. Mary sits down at Jesus' feet and listens.

Martha, frustrated, asks Jesus to intervene and send her sister to help. His response is gentle but direct. He tells her that she is worried and upset about many things, but that only one thing is truly needed. Mary, he says, has chosen what is better.

It is easy to read this story and quietly judge Martha. But most of us are Martha. We are distracted by the preparations, pulled in a dozen directions, filling our schedules until there is no room left for the one thing that actually matters. We intend to spend time with God. We plan to get to it. We work him into the schedule somewhere between the meeting and the grocery run and the inbox that never empties.

Mary made a different choice. She worked her schedule around Jesus rather than working Jesus into her schedule. That single distinction changes everything.

The God-Shaped Void

There is a void inside every person. You have likely felt it, that sense that something is missing even when life looks good on paper, that restlessness that a promotion or a vacation or a new relationship briefly quiets but never fully resolves. The world offers endless options to fill it. Newer things, bigger things, more exciting things. And they work, for a moment. Then the emptiness returns.

That void is God-shaped. Nothing else fits. Not because God is withholding something, but because he designed us for himself, and only he can satisfy what he created. Every substitute leaves us emptier than before.

Matthew chapter 6 captures this with clarity. Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, addresses the things that consume human attention and worry. His instruction cuts through all of it: seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and everything else will be provided. The main thing, simply put, is to keep the main thing the main thing.

Seeking His Face, Not Just His Hand

There is a meaningful difference between seeking God's hand and seeking his face. His hand represents what he can give, what he can do, the provision and the protection. His face represents who he is, his presence, his character, the relationship itself.

God is not interested in being used. He wants to be known. And when we come to him not for what we can get but simply because we love him and want to be with him, something shifts. Psalm 37 describes it this way: when we delight in the Lord, he gives us the desires of our heart.

The invitation is open. Seek him first. Not after the emails, not after the news, not after everything else has been handled. First. Put him at the top of the list and watch what happens to everything below it.

He is not looking for a performance. He is looking for your presence. And he is always, without exception, looking for you.