{"id":6052,"date":"2015-01-05T05:52:41","date_gmt":"2015-01-05T05:52:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6052"},"modified":"2015-01-05T05:56:42","modified_gmt":"2015-01-05T05:56:42","slug":"pressing-on-to-know-the-lord","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6052","title":{"rendered":"Pressing on to know the Lord"},"content":{"rendered":"

So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth.<\/em> Hosea 6:3<\/p>\n

People all over the church world are taking time now at the beginning of the year to seek God for direction and wisdom, correction and clearer vision for their lives.<\/p>\n

We are called to spend time with the Lord on a daily basis, but there are also\u00a0seasons in which God draws His children into a more targeted, prolonged, and concentrated time of pressing in know Him on a deeper level.<\/p>\n

When you press on something, you are focusing your energy,\u00a0attention, and strength on that particular object. When you press on to know the Lord, you are focusing your energy, attention, and strength on Him and what He has said in His Word.<\/p>\n

The fact that God will go forth is established. First, He will go forth in drawing near to you as you draw near to Him (see James 4:8). And then, He will watch over His Word as you place yourself in agreement with it to perform it (see Jeremiah 1:12). But in all of it, your primary focus as you press in is to know Him<\/em> and to cooperate with His will in your life. The blessings and the promises that result from your concentrated time of seeking Him are gravy\u2014good and glorious stuff, but the best part of pressing in is\u00a0getting to know\u00a0Him better.<\/p>\n

In the dead of winter, what better endeavor can you pursue than to press in to know your God more intimately? Winter, as long as it seems to be, will be over soon enough. The ground will start teeming with life and the days will grow longer as the chill starts to fade away. And the rains will start falling\u2014the warm spring rains which saturate the thirsty earth and pour out promise of new life, blessings, and\u00a0more active\u00a0days. As you press on to know the Lord now, in a concentrated way, He promises to send the rain in due season to your life\u2014the rain of promise, blessing, and renewal. So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. <\/em><\/p>\n

I will be spending the next few weeks in a more focused\u00a0way with the Lord, so I have decided to suspend my First of All Pray blog for this time period. As it stands now, I will return to the blog on Monday, January 26, 2015.<\/p>\n

Be blessed, and take some time in your schedule to press on to know the Lord.<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So let us know, let us press on to know the LORD. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; And He will come to us like the rain, Like the spring rain watering the earth. Hosea 6:3 People all over the church world are taking time now at the beginning of the year […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,28],"tags":[67,70,71,72],"class_list":["post-6052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prayerperspective","category-the-new-year","tag-new-year","tag-prayer","tag-press-on-to-know-the-lord","tag-seeking-god"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6052"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6055,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6052\/revisions\/6055"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}