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Our church has been focused this year on the idea of seeing as God sees – emphasizing an eternal perspective. It is a focus that calls us to surrender our relentless worship of the temporal – a call my heart, in part, still resists. I write today to those parts of my own heart...

Psalm 63 is, for me, a spiritual check-up passage. As you read David’s expressions of thirst and longing for the relational presence of God, let the Holy Spirit sift your affections while asking yourself, on a scale of 1 to 10 (with 10 being a robust echoing of David’s feelings), where are my heart’s affections? And then let David’s example draw you up the scale.

I love words, but often they aren’t sufficient for the task. I would love to be able to express in words the deep, soul-satisfying sweetness when the Lord’s face shines in my direction. It’s a little like trying to express to a person who’s never had chocolate how chocolate tastes.

While meditating on the Aaronic blessing (Numbers 6:24-26), I have been amazed at what comfort is packed into a single line! “The Lord make His face shine upon you”—it is not the poetry of man, but the proclamation of heaven.

Two men went up to the temple to pray—but only one went home justified. The first was robed in religious garb, adorned with spiritual pride, and convinced of his own righteousness. He prayed—but not to God. He prayed to himself. Listen to his words: “God, I thank You that I am not like other men.”