Pressing on
“Let us know; let us press on to know the Lord; his going out is sure as the dawn; he will come to us as the showers, as the spring rains that water the earth.””
Yesterday, my brother Paul Konadu posted about being on fire for Jesus. His post basically made the point that no one ever got closer to Jesus by being passive about their relationship. Those who desire to grow in the kingdom must lay their lives down and passionately, sacrificially, and diligently seek him.
Sometimes there is a wall up. Maybe the stresses of life have weighed us down. Perhaps there is another layer of surrender God is working on in us. That means that we all have times in our spiritual journey (and yes, I mean all of us) when we struggle to sense the presence of God and hear his voice.
I want to be careful with my words because I never want to communicate a message of striving. Striving is the attempt to earn access or promotion and is not the same as passionately pressing on. Striving is transactional. It is all about acquiring something because we earned it or deserved it. It requires constant fighting for worth and a seat at the table. That is not how the kingdom works.
Pressing on is about longing to go deeper in our relationship with Jesus. Sometimes that means that we have to overcome barriers and walls due to trials, sin, or rebellion. That is what Hosea is talking about in our verse for today. The key to pressing on is that we are after more than getting some religious reward. We are engaged in the process of discovering and knowing God like never before.
In pressing on to know God, we are stepping into an eternal journey of experiencing and knowing God more deeply. That is the kind of effort the Lord desires and honors.
Striving says, “I will give this to get that.” Pressing on says, “I will give anything to have more of you.”
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