Your relationship with your creator isn’t a result of your works, what you’ve done or chosen not to do. You’ve been offered a relationship with God almighty because of his relentless pursuit of YOU. His grace has simply drawn us deeper into the life he created us for. The bible is filled with countless stories of God’s pursuit of people who had strayed from him. People who had failed. People who had royally screwed up their lives. People who the world had written off as too far gone, too shameful to even share a meal with, Jesus sat right down in their dining room with them and pulled up a chair. He was pursuing them. Relentlessly pursuing.
From the very moment you were born, God has been pursuing you. Now maybe you’ve spent most of your years running and chasing after other things. Yip, me too. Not necessarily running from God, but keeping myself so busy and so distracted that God’s knocking on my door went unnoticed and unanswered. And yet he has pursued me.
Aren’t you grateful God doesn’t give up easily. If he did, how long ago would he have given up on you? How many times have you turned his offers down? Yes, his offers of a better way than your own, his offers of a bigger life than the comfortable one you have settled for, his offers of a story which only appear as a struggle right now. And here he stands again today, after our continual refusal, offering again saying “Will you let me in? Will you let me help you? Will you just draw close to me because I’ve been trying to draw close to you all the days of your life.”
This is his relentless pursuit of you. And even during the times when you’ve given up on you, HE HASN’T. He has never backed down.
God.
Still.
Wants.
You.
Psalm 139: 7 ‘I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence!’
And he will stop at nothing to reach you with his grace and draw you in to a relationship with him. Could that by why all this has been happening in your life? Could the lost job, the financial struggles, the health scare, the crisis, the stress and the worry … could all of this have happened because either you’ve been running, or because God wants to show you his power through it all. If you’ve been running, just stop. Stop. Let him catch you. Let him wrap you up in his love and provide in ways you simply never imagined. Let him strengthen you. Let him shield you. Take your refuge in him. Many years ago, my life seemed to be falling apart. We had run out of money, our business had dried up, every light we saw at the end of the tunnel turned into a freight train heading right for us. I had come to the end of my rope with all my fruitless efforts and one day I sat on my couch and just surrendered. He caught me. He and I sat on that couch and wrestled it out. I was angry. I was scared. And God was faithful. That day my life changed. God’s relentless pursuit through it all had captured me.
This is where we often mess up – we often think God wants us to do something for him. Now yes, he does call us to action. He does expect us to be his hands and feet. But more than that, God wants you to know he is with you and for you. More than anything he wants to catch you. He wants you to respond to his relentless pursuit by turning around and running right to him. He’s got you. I promise he does.
He loves you. He loves you so much that after all these years of you running and you trying all your own bright ideas, he is still pursuing you. Hearing this today is once again a result of his relentless pursuit of you. You. Precious and priceless you. One and only you. He sees you and knows without a doubt, you’re worth the pursuit.