Face-To-Face

Have you ever experienced a long-distance relationship? If you have, then you know that location-separation relationships are difficult to maintain. Cultivating a long-distance relationship requires ongoing commitment, faithfulness, and perseverance by the individuals involved. Staying connected, so that the relationship thrives, is often inconvenient — but not impossible.

This is especially true when we consider communing with God. God doesn’t prefer long-distance relationships either. He designed us for face-to-face relational intimacy. He wants to dwell with us ― make His home with us — forever communing with us

In Eden, by divine design, God communed with man face-to-face. Regrettably, our disobedience changed the conditions of our relationship. Sin physically and spiritually separated us from God and temporarily severed our face-to-face relationship with Him. Since then, as seen throughout Scripture, God affirms His desire to intimately reconnect with His creation. Through Ezekiel, God reiterated His promise to restore face-to-face relational intimacy with humankind. This would require ongoing commitment, faithfulness, and perseverance from His people, just as any long-distance relationship does.

Today, we can regain the face-to-face closeness the people in Ezekiel’s time lacked. In Jesus, we encounter God’s physical presence. Through Jesus, we experience communion with God our Father. Although He is not yet physically present among us, we can still cultivate a thriving relationship with Him until He restores all things, reverses sin’s curse, and comes to dwell with us forever.

Seeking His face is seeking His presence. Until Heaven comes home, may our heart’s cry be: “Your face, LORD, we will seek.”

Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for the privilege of being able to come into your presence and intimately commune with you. Create in me an insatiable desire to seek your face through prayer and your Word – in every aspect of my life. Empower me with ongoing commitment, faithfulness, and perseverance to intentionally seek your face, until I see you face to face. Amen.

Go Deeper — Throughout Scripture God reiterates His promise to forever dwell with us – face-to-face. Reread today’s verse and compare it with Revelation 21:3 and 22:3 -4.