4 Seek and deeply long for the Lord and His strength [His power, His might];

Seek and deeply long for His face and His presence continually.

11 Seek the Lord and His strength;

Seek His face continually [longing to be in His presence].

6 Seek the Lord while He may be found;

Call on Him [for salvation] while He is near.

4 One thing I have asked of the Lord, and that I will seek:

That I may dwell in the house of the Lord [in His presence] all the days of my life,

To gaze upon the beauty [the delightful loveliness and majestic grandeur] of the Lord

And to meditate in His temple. [Ps 16:11; 18:6; 65:4; Luke 2:37]

10 For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand [anywhere else];

I would rather stand [as a doorkeeper] at the threshold of the house of my God

Than to live [at ease] in the tents of wickedness.

11 You will show me the path of life;

In Your presence is fullness of joy;

In Your right hand there are pleasures forevermore. [Acts 2:25-28, 31]

17 When the righteous cry [for help], the Lord hears

And rescues them from all their distress and troubles.

18 The Lord is near to the heartbroken

And He saves those who are crushed in spirit (contrite in heart, truly sorry for their sin).

5 Let your gentle spirit [your graciousness, unselfishness, mercy, tolerance, and patience] be known to all people. The Lord is near.

13 But now [at this very moment] in Christ Jesus you who once were [so very] far away [from God] have been brought near *by the blood of Christ.

6 Surely goodness and mercy and unfailing love shall follow me all the days of my life,

And I shall dwell forever [throughout all my days] in the house and in the presence of the Lord.

18 "I will not leave you as orphans [comfortless, bereaved, and helpless]; I will come [back] to you.

57 May the Lord our God be with us as He was with our fathers; may He not leave us nor abandon us [to our enemies],

31 "Yet in Your great compassion You did not utterly destroy them or abandon them,

For You are a gracious and merciful God.

16 Now may the Lord of peace Himself grant you His peace at all times and in every way [that peace and spiritual well-being that comes to those who walk with Him, regardless of life’s circumstances]. The Lord be with you all. [John 14:27]

11 Finally, believers, rejoice! Be made complete [be what you should be], be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace [enjoy the spiritual well-being experienced by believers who walk closely with God]; and the God of love and peace [the source of lovingkindness] will be with you.

13 By this we know [with confident assurance] that we abide in Him and He in us, because He has given to us His [Holy] Spirit.

18 No one has seen God [His essence, His divine nature] at any time; the [One and] only begotten God [that is, the unique Son] who is in the intimate presence of the Father, He has explained Him [and interpreted and revealed the awesome wonder of the Father]. [Prov 8:30]

28 Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights; he ate no bread and drank no water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.

9 and heal those in it who are sick [authenticating your message], and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

1 Now the Spirit of God came on Azariah the son of Oded, 2 and he went out to meet Asa and said to him, "Hear me, Asa, and all Judah and Benjamin: the Lord is with you while you are with Him. If you seek Him [inquiring for and of Him, as your soul’s first necessity], He will let you find Him; but if you abandon (turn away from) Him, He will abandon (turn away from) you. 3 Now for a long time Israel was without the true God and without a teaching priest, and without [God’s] law. 4 But when they were in their trouble and distress they turned to the Lord God of Israel, and [in desperation earnestly] sought Him, and He let them find Him. 5 In those times there was no peace for him who went out or for him who came in, for great suffering came on all the inhabitants of the lands. 6 Nation was crushed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every kind of distress. 7 But as for you, be strong and do not lose courage, for there is reward for your work."

8 And when Asa heard these words, the prophecy of Azariah the son of Oded the prophet, he took courage and removed the repulsive idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had captured in the hill country of Ephraim. Then he restored the altar [of burnt offering] of the Lord which was in front of the porch [of the temple] of the Lord. 9 He gathered all Judah and Benjamin and the strangers who were with them out of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to Asa from Israel in large numbers when they saw that the Lord his God was with him. 10 So they assembled at Jerusalem in the third month of the fifteenth year of Asa’s reign. 11 They sacrificed to the Lord on that day from the spoil they had brought—700 oxen and 7,000 sheep. 12 They entered into a covenant (solemn agreement) to seek the Lord God of their fathers with all their heart and soul; 13 and that whoever would not seek the Lord God of Israel, was to be put to death, whether young or old, man or woman. 14 They swore an oath to the Lord with a loud voice, with [jubilant] shouting, with trumpets, and with horns. 15 All Judah rejoiced over the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and had sought Him with their whole heart, and He let them find Him. So the Lord gave them rest on every side.

16 He also removed Maacah, King Asa’s mother, from the position of queen mother, because she had made a repulsive image for [the goddess] Asherah. Asa cut down her idol, crushed it, and burned it at the Brook Kidron. 17 But the high places [of pagan worship] were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless Asa’s heart was blameless all his days. 18 He brought the things that his father [Abijah] had dedicated and those things that he had dedicated into the house of God—silver and gold and utensils. 19 And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of Asa’s reign.