The Father is Searching for True Worshipers

As Jesus began His ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing, huge crowds began to follow Him. The gospel of Mark records a sample day in the life of Jesus in chapter one. You see Jesus preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of God in 1:14 – 15, followed by calling His first disciples, 1:16 – 20, followed by teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum, 1:21 – 22, followed by casting out a demon in a man in the synagogue, 1:23 – 28, followed healing Simon’s mother-in-law, and ending the day by healing many others who were sick or demon possessed as they gathered at the home of Simon, 1:29 – 34.

The word spread and the crowds kept gathering throughout the night. When you are sick and you hear of others being healed, you do not wait until morning to get relief. And the Scripture says, “And rising very early in the morning, while it was still dark, he departed and went out to a desolate place, and there he prayed.” Mark 1:35.

As the people were becoming more and more desperate to find Jesus, He was more and more desperate to find fellowship and strength with the Father in prayer, because He knew that the Father was also seeking His presence and fellowship.

This one verse in Mark, in the context of the events of that long day, teaches a definitive truth from the life of Jesus. It reveals the single priority that guided Jesus regardless of what was happening around Him. Jesus sought to worship the Father in spirit and truth because He knew that the Father was seeking for those who desired His fellowship. And like the one thing a sick person desires, which is healing, Jesus desired one thing, which was the Father’s presence.

The Psalms present the wide variety of human experience and situations, and yet they all arrive at the same instruction, which is to seek the presence of the Lord, regardless of the situation. Psalm 27:4 is a good example, which says, “One thing I have asked of the LORD, and that will I seek after: that I may dwell in the house of the LORD all the days of my life, to gaze upon the beauty of the LORD and to inquire in his temple.”

The Hebrew word for “dwell” is yah-shab, and is one thing that the psalmist desires. It means to sit, to stay, to inhabit, to live with, to marry. The word “gaze” is the Hebrew word chazah, which means to look intently at something to study it, to learn, and to explore the depth of it. The word “inquire” is the Hebrew word baqar, which means to reflect upon what you have been looking at and to desire to see more.

All three of these words describe what Jesus was doing as He rose up early that morning to desire the presence of His Father. As pleased and happy as all of the people were that Jesus healed the day before, Jesus knew that the Father was more pleased and desired to share His joy and pleasure with His Son. Jesus desired more than anything else to look upon the Father and to think upon His desire.

Today, meditate upon Psalm 27:4, memorizing it and making it your priority in prayer, because this is what it means to become a true worshiper, one what worships the Father in spirit and truth.