Pursued
by God:
Have you
ever felt far away from God?
Have you
ever felt empty, alone, or, quite honestly, like God has abandoned you?
Here are a
couple of verses from the book of Psalms to help reset your perspective and align it to the reality of the depth and intensity of loving-kindness your Creator has for you!
1. Psalm
138:8 “The LORD will perfect that which concerns me: your mercy, O LORD,
endures forever: forsake not the works of your own hands.”
Even steadfast
rock stars of faith, like King David, sometimes felt forsaken or worn down and realized their
absolute DEPENDENCE upon God to supernaturally fill, empower, lead, and perfect
them. That’s the spiritual life. Unfortunately, that’s the very thing we constantly resist and abandon in our pursuit of the
things of the world... things that we desire… things we can control... and things we can accomplish under
our own power. All those things demonstrate our independence from God.
Guess
what? Independence from faith & dependence upon God is the very definition of sin. (See Rom 14:23)
All of those
things that amount to independence are the ‘sinking sand’ upon which the
foolish builder builds (Mt. 7:26). But when we yield (that’s our part)
to the Spirit and allow God to fill us with the power and obedience to accomplish the Father’s will – that is when God is glorified, souls are
saved, lives are transformed, the Church becomes unified, and the impossible (under
human power) happens.
-----------------------
2. Psalm
23:6 “Surely your sweet goodness and unfailing covenant love will pursue hard
after me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the
LORD forever.”
The Creator
of the universe isn’t ‘gone fishing,’ God isn’t the impotent, incapable, distant,
disconnected, disinterested god you may have been led to believe He is.
God pursues hard after you like a cheetah
chasing down its prey. The contrast being that God’s intention isn’t to devour you as dinner,
but rather to embrace you in his “sweet goodness and covenant loving kindness.”
English
translations typically take the Hebrew verb. (radaph) and translate it ‘follow.’ “Surely your mercy and
goodness will follow me…” That’s
like saying a cheetah follows a
bunny, or watching a high-speed police chase and saying the police are merely following the criminals.
God isn’t
following you. God is PURSUING HARD AFTER YOU!
God desires
for us to yield to the Spirit and serve in obedience because that’s what is
best for us – and amazingly God somehow allows it to be added to His already
perfect glory!
Today may
have been a rough day…
at the end
of a rough week…
at the end
of a rough month…
at the end
of a rough year…
in what may
feel like life-long chaos, disappointment and frustration.
But God's Word says for us to BE
ENCOURAGED!
Today you
may feel like God either doesn’t care about you or that He can’t possibly
forgive you for the ‘stuff’ or ‘that thing’ you’ve done.
You’d be absolutely WRONG on both counts.
God does
care about you, so much so that He stepped down from His heavenly throne and
walked among us as the exclusive God-man, Jesus, and after living a perfect
life He died a perfect death so that regardless of what you’ve done there is
forgiveness and grace for you.
God does NOT
forsake the work of His own hands.
God has
been pursuing hard after you since before you were
born.
Maybe right
now is the time you stop running.
Maybe right now is when you allow God to do a miracle in & through
your life – for His praise and glory.
Read Romans
10:9 and find acceptance and eternal life in our God who has been perfecting and pursuing you this whole time.
Blessing,
-Kevin
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