Now Set Your Heart and Your Soul to Seek the LORD Your God…

 

17 David also commanded all the leaders of Israel to help Solomon his son, saying, 18 ”Is not the LORD your God with you? And has He not given you rest on every side? For He has given the inhabitants of the land into my hand, and the land is subdued before the LORD and before His people. 19 Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God. Therefore arise and build the sanctuary of the LORD God, to bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD and the holy articles of God into the house that is to be built for the name of the LORD.”—1 Chronicles 22:17-19

Look at all the Lord has done for us, David says to the leaders of Israel.  Is He not with us?  Has He not given us rest on every side?  Has He not subdued the land and given its inhabitants into my hand?  Therefore, set your heart and soul to seek Him. Arise! Assist Solomon in this task! Build the sanctuary of the Lord and place within it the holy ark which symbolized the presence of God.

Now set your heart and your soul to seek the LORD your God.—1 Chronicles 22:19a

I don’t know about you but I would love to have this reminder so indelibly written on my heart that it would be always before my eyes. I need plaques, index cards, and magnets for my refrigerator with this verse printed on them in very big letters.  

Beloved…The Lord has done great things for us and we are glad!  We are as believers His dwelling place. The Presence of God lives within us!  Therefore, live for His glory!

1 Arise, shine;

For your light has come!

And the glory of the LORD is risen upon you.

2 For behold, the darkness shall cover the earth,

And deep darkness the people;

But the LORD will arise over you,

And His glory will be seen upon you.—Isaiah 60:1-2

Oh Father! Give us steadfast, single-minded hearts that seek You continually. May we place our happiness in Your favor and our eye upon Your glory. May we seek You as our chief good and highest end and this with everything we have.  So engage our heart in doing Your will that our head and hand and each one of our interests are cheerfully employed for Your purposes.  

18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.—Deuteronomy 11:18-21

4 Coming to Him as to a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God and precious, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.—1 Peter 2:4-5

7 But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. 8 We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; 9 persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— 10 always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. 11 For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus’ sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. 12 So then death is working in us, but life in you.—2Corinthians 4:7-12

Cross-reference Verses

11 Seek the LORD and His strength;

Seek His face evermore!

12 Remember His marvelous works which He has done,

His wonders, and the judgments of His mouth,—1 Chronicles 16:11-12

9 “As for you, my son Solomon, know the God of your father, and serve Him with a loyal heart and with a willing mind; for the LORD searches all hearts and understands all the intent of the thoughts. If you seek Him, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will cast you off forever.—1 Chronicles 28:9

29 But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in distress, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, when you turn to the LORD your God and obey His voice 31 (for the LORD your God is a merciful God), He will not forsake you nor destroy you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers which He swore to them.—Deuteronomy 4:29-31

46 and he said to them: “Set your hearts on all the words which I testify among you today, which you shall command your children to be careful to observe—all the words of this law. 47 For it is not a futile thing for you, because it is your life, and by this word you shall prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to possess.”—Deuteronomy 32:46-47

4 One thing I have desired of the LORD,

That will I seek:

That I may dwell in the house of the LORD

All the days of my life,

To behold the beauty of the LORD,

And to inquire in His temple.—Psalm 27:4

3 Then the word of the LORD came by Haggai the prophet, saying, 

4 ”Is it time for you yourselves to dwell in your paneled houses, and this temple to lie in ruins?” 5 Now therefore, thus says the LORD of hosts: “Consider your ways!

6 “You have sown much, and bring in little;

You eat, but do not have enough;

You drink, but you are not filled with drink;

You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm;

And he who earns wages,

Earns wages to put into a bag with holes.”

7 Thus says the LORD of hosts: “Consider your ways! 8 Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build the temple, that I may take pleasure in it and be glorified,” says the LORD. 9 ”You looked for much, but indeed it came to little; and when you brought it home, I blew it away. Why?” says the LORD of hosts. “Because of My house that is in ruins, while every one of you runs to his own house. 10 Therefore the heavens above you withhold the dew, and the earth withholds its fruit. 11 For I called for a drought on the land and the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and livestock, and on all the labor of your hands.”—Haggai 1:3-11 

23 When he came and had seen the grace of God, he was glad, and encouraged them all that with purpose of heart they should continue with the Lord.—Acts 11:23