PURSUING GOD

What are you pursuing today? Will there be a prize that awaits you, when you have found it? There is no greater reward for human kind than when we move from pursuing something to actually encountering it. While completing a task gives us a sense of gratification, there is a difference between finishing a job or goal because we are ask to do it, than to go after it with great passion because we want to do it. While setting goals and finishing them are always rewarding, pursuing a goal is something different altogether, especially if you are pursuing something that you long to have. Some people pursue fame and fortune while others pursue education, good health or other things. Whatever the pursuit may be, they can lead us to pursue them with passion. When my children were little, I often times played hide and seek with them. However, the hiding was never the purpose of the game. It only served as the opportunity for the purpose, and that was, to be found by my children. Oh what a joyous occasion between us, as they would round the corner to find me smiling and waiting for them as they announced, “got cha!”. What they did not know at the time was, I had purposely hidden myself so that they could easily find me. That is how God hides from us. It may seem as though He hides Himself almost as if He does not want to be found. But Oh friend, He does! His Word even tells us to seek Him. His hiding is for the sheer joy that we receive when we do find Him.

If God seems to be hiding from you today, I can assure you sweet friend, it is not Him that is hiding, but you. Your job is to find out what your hiding from, by perusing Him. If you recall, it was not God that was found hiding in the Garden of Eden after Adam and Eve had sinned, but the ones who felt they had reason to hide from Him because of their wrongdoing. It is the same with us today. Our wrong doings separate us from God. They separate us from having a relationship with him, they separate our fellowship with Him, they separate our understanding of Him and the list goes on. But it never was or is God’s intention for us to be separated from Him. He wants to enjoy our presence as much or more than we want to enjoy or experience His presence. That is why He made a way for us to come to Him even after the sin which separates us, came between Him and the ones that He created and adores. When God looks at us through the blood of forgiveness and our repented lives, He sees a restored child whom He adores and longs to have a personal relationship with. We cannot do it ourselves, but through His love, by His power and our choice to peruse Him, we are able to encounter the manifest presence of Almighty God.

I was at a wedding recently where the groomsmen had come out from the side room and were all standing on the platform awaiting the brides procession to come down the aisle and bring the bride to marry her beloved. As the bridesmaids came down the aisle preceding the bride to come, I noticed two young groomsmen who had only recently been married themselves. Their wives were also in the wedding and were among the bridesmaids that were shimmering down the aisle. I could not help but notice that those two young men watched their wives with sheer glee! Never once did they take their eyes off their own brides until each one had made her way down and found her spot on the platform. As I watched them, I noticed that those two young men never once looked at the other bridesmaids coming down, but only peered out in the congregation of those attending the ceremony as if to be uninterested, not even noticing as the other bridesmaids made their way down. That resonated with me, as I thought about how the Lord pursues me. Wow, what a feeling to know that the God of the universe looks at me; yep me, He looks at me, never taking His eyes off of me. His desire for me is to encounter Him and know Him better! We are encouraged in the scriptures to run the spiritual race that has been set for us to run. But the key to running it is not to compete with God’s other children, but to run it to win, for ourselves! Are you running in that race today? Do you know Him? Are you pursuing Him, as He is pursuing you? He is waiting on you! His Word tells us that He has a great prize for those who pursue Him with the intentions to win! 

Loving you today!

Bren