Press on to Know the Lord

Photo Credit: Laura Kinney

“Oh, that we might know the Lord! Let us press on to know Him. 

He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn 

or the coming of rains in early spring.”

-Hosea 6:3 NLT-

I just moved to a beautiful little city in North Carolina. I moved here to start graduate school, but it’s not at all where I thought I would end up. I had my sights set on a completely different school in a completely different state. God didn’t open that door because he knew what I needed better than I did. Ever since I surrendered my decision to attend school here and chose (very reluctantly) to be obedient to where he’s been calling me to go, I can walk in absolute confidence knowing that this was his plan all along. Nothing about my hesitance to spend 2 years in a city (that I had never been to before I committed) caught my Jesus by surprise, and I just love that!

Something that I’m still getting used to is the fact that it seems to rain every afternoon. Even knowing that, I still forget an umbrella or I accidentally leave my pink rain jacket in my car. But, in these moments where I found myself stranded on campus in a strange building until the pouring rain subsides, I have stumbled upon some of the sweetest spots on this BIG campus. There’s a cool solarium on campus with beautiful natural light, waterfalls, and cool music playing. It’s one of my favorite spots and I wouldn’t have found it had the rain not stranded me inside. This room is full of windows and I can even sit and watch the rain gently falling while I sit in awe and forced rest.

I was walking back to my car in the freshly fallen rain and there was a beautiful rainbow and everything was fresh and clean and new. I began to think to myself that this is such a good representation of what it feels like to walk with the Lord and to be sanctified by Him. I love Hosea 6:3’s promise that Christ will appear as surely as the dawn. It may seem that we’re stranded or caught in the rain and stuck and unsure of where to go, but our God will appear as surely as the dawn! He will appear as surely as the sun after it rains. It won’t rain forever; the sun has to come out. And when it does, everything is new and fresh and somehow makes sense. This is grace! He appears to us even when we find ourselves caught in the rain with no umbrella or raincoat, reminding us of our need for Him. Then, he gloriously appears to us in all His beautiful splendor having kept us in the palm of His hand all the while (Isaiah 46:9).

My encouragement to each of you this year is that you would press on to know the Lord, and grow to know Him more deeply. I’m thrilled to grow in grace with each of you ladies throughout this year as we both deepen in our relationship with our faithful Heavenly Father.

(Check out Ellie Holcomb’s song “As Sure As the Sun” to reinforce this great scripture memory verse! )