PSALM 105:4-5 – Seek the Lord and His strength; seek His presence continually! Remember the wondrous works that He has done, His miracles, and the judgments He uttered.

THEME OF THE DAY. WHAT THE CHRISTIAN LIFE LOOKS LIKE. How do we live the Christian life? The obvious answer is “By faith”. And the obvious is right. Yet what does it look like in the day-to-day grind of doing life and doing so by faith in a God we cannot see, don’t always feel, and has chosen to reveal Himself through His Word not in a literal appearing? We must be careful in talking about living by faith as if this is some easy thing we do. There are reasons why our Lord Jesus told us few there would be who find Him and walk with Him (Matthew 7:13-14). One of those reasons is because the Christian life is a faith walk often traveled through difficult seasons of spiritual wilderness and darkness. Faith must have those seasons for it relies not on experiences, feelings, or emotional highs and lows. Faith lies in the tried promises and character of our God who cannot lie. And that isn’t easy when life seems to have the bottom drop out.

In today’s scripture, we get a really good picture of what the Christian life looks like as a walk of faith with God. And remember, true faith is never passive. It is active. It is alive. It works. It moves us to action. It directs our lives. It renews our minds. It determines our worldview and the decisions we make in life. Our faith in the Living God is the most precious gift He has given us to be exercised and developed all through life until the time we surrender it for sight in the Presence of Him who gave us saving faith. So with that introduction, let’s look at faith in action or what the Christian life looks like.

First, an active and living faith in a child of God is constantly seeking Him for the strength to live out life for His glory. The Psalmist opens us this verse with the words, “Seek the Lord and His strength.” Friends, we are powerless to live one second of the Christian life on our own. And here is the danger. We know that. We would tell each other that reality, but saying it and living it are often poles apart. Here is an example. We confess that without the Lord we can do nothing. Then, a tough circumstance, situation, or relationship comes into our lives. We have one of two choices. Run to our knees and establish a posture of clinging prayer to the Lord for His strength. Or we run in the strength of ourselves to control or change the situation or people. We will know what we have chosen by the level of stress, worry, impatience, and irritation we exhibit. A praying people, a trusting people are learning to rest in the God of all circumstances and they are noticeably at peace. A faithless person is anything but at peace. The Christian life is a faith walk in the power and strength of the Lord who calls us to seek Him for such. And that daily, throughout the day.

Next, the Psalms show us the Christian life lived under an active and living faith includes seeking to consciously walk with awareness of the Lord’s Presence – “Seek His presence continually.” Now we must understand what this means by grasping what it doesn’t mean. It does not mean we will walk every day, and throughout the day, with a felt sense of the Lord’s Presence. Christians will not always feel the presence of God in this life. That is for heaven and sight. We live in the earth by faith. And faith rests on the promise of His presence not the feeling of His presence. Yes, praise the Lord, there are glorious times we do feel His presence, but mostly we don’t. God has ordained we seek His Presence by His Word dwelling within us and renewing our mind about His attributes and Person regardless of feelings. Notice the verse right after the command to seek His presence continually. It is a command to engage the mind to think on God and all He has done. That is faith in action and teaches us to recognize His presence, felt or unfelt.

So, the Christian life… it is truly a walk with the Living God; a walk by faith in Who He is as revealed by His Word. It is also a walk of reliance upon His promised strength. As we learn to walk with Him by faith, we will not only enjoy Him and the Christian life more, but grow in such faith for His glory and our good.

PRAYER: “Father, help me to be child-like in my walk with You; learning daily to seek Your strength and Presence.”

QUOTE: “Don’t reduce the Christian life to a dull religious routine. Walk with God consciously. That is the Christian life”