Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face evermore!

Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand.

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

You will show me the path of life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

One thing I have desired of the LORD, That will I seek: That I may dwell in the house of the LORD All the days of my life, To behold the beauty of the LORD, And to inquire in His temple.

Now the Spirit of God came upon Azariah the son of Oded.
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, He will be found by you; but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.
For a long time Israel has been without the true God, without a teaching priest, and without law;
but when in their trouble they turned to the LORD God of Israel, and sought Him, He was found by them.
And in those times there was no peace to the one who went out, nor to the one who came in, but great turmoil was on all the inhabitants of the lands.
So nation was destroyed by nation, and city by city, for God troubled them with every adversity.
But you, be strong and do not let your hands be weak, for your work shall be rewarded!"
And when Asa heard these words and the prophecy of Oded the prophet, he took courage, and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin and from the cities which he had taken in the mountains of Ephraim; and he restored the altar of the LORD that was before the vestibule of the LORD.
Then he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those who dwelt with them from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon, for they came over to him in great numbers from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him.
So they gathered together at Jerusalem in the third month, in the fifteenth year of the reign of Asa.
And they offered to the LORD at that time seven hundred bulls and seven thousand sheep from the spoil they had brought.
Then they entered into a covenant to seek the LORD God of their fathers with all their heart and with all their soul;
and whoever would not seek the LORD God of Israel was to be put to death, whether small or great, whether man or woman.
Then they took an oath before the LORD with a loud voice, with shouting and trumpets and rams' horns.
And all Judah rejoiced at the oath, for they had sworn with all their heart and sought Him with all their soul; and He was found by them, and the LORD gave them rest all around.
Also he removed Maachah, the mother of Asa the king, from being queen mother, because she had made an obscene image of Asherah; and Asa cut down her obscene image, then crushed and burned it by the Brook Kidron.
But the high places were not removed from Israel. Nevertheless the heart of Asa was loyal all his days.
He also brought into the house of God the things that his father had dedicated and that he himself had dedicated: silver and gold and utensils.
And there was no war until the thirty-fifth year of the reign of Asa.

The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears, And delivers them out of all their troubles.
The LORD is near to those who have a broken heart, And saves such as have a contrite spirit.

By this we know that we abide in Him, and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit.

Now may the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always in every way. The Lord be with you all.

Seek the LORD and His strength; Seek His face evermore!

May the LORD our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us nor forsake us,

For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand. I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

Seek the LORD while He may be found, Call upon Him while He is near.

No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

And heal the sick there, and say to them, "The kingdom of God has come near to you.'

Nevertheless in Your great mercy You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; For You are God, gracious and merciful.

Finally, brethren, farewell. Become complete. Be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you.

So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he neither ate bread nor drank water. And He wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments.