God is good. Once you experience his goodness, you will feel an emptiness if you ever pull away from him again.

If you feel empty, could it be because you’ve pulled away a bit? Have you distanced yourself, stopped doing the things you once did that brought you closer to God? I believe we all go through these seasons in life where we lose our way a bit, we go chasing after the sparkly object, we get busy with this and distracted with that, and before we know it we’ve fallen into a habit of doing life without God.

And since God is good, you could say trying to do life without God SUCKS! It sucks the joy out of you, it sucks the peace out of you, it sucks the contentment out of you, and you’re left living in turmoil where the days are long, the patience is short and there’s just not a whole lot of happiness in it all.

That is emptiness. That emptiness is felt as a result of that God sized hole within you being unfilled.

You’re listening today because you have a relentless God who will stop at nothing in his pursuit of you. If you’ve pulled away, He misses you. Through it all he’s been chasing you down recklessly. There’s no where he won’t go after you. There’s nothing he won’t do to reach you. He will sacrifice anything to get to you. And hasn’t he already proven that? Remember, he sacrificed his one and only son so that you could be redeemed and not have to pay the price for your own sins. That’s reckless in our eyes. That’s love. Love makes you do crazy, unreasonable things.

Y’all, I love my dog. My kids tease Tank is my favorite child. They’re probably not wrong on most days. Our current home in Key Largo is on the canal. In the backyard is a cement ledge which drops straight to the water. The only way out of the water is up a ladder. There’s no ramp or shore, just a ladder. Dogs don’t climb ladders which means for Tank, jumping in that water is not a good idea. But he did it yesterday. In a moment of frenzy watching his Daddy fish, he dove right in after the fish and there was no way for him to get back out.

But love makes you do crazy things. I dove in and in a moment similar to the moms who have superhuman strength to lift a car off their child, in deep waters I somehow hoisted his 130 pound butt above my head to get him back on the dock.

The neighbors came running after hearing all the commotion and proceeded to tell me there’s an 11 foot crocodile who typically lives by our dock. Yip, I was flailing around in those waters … love made me do it.

God’s love for you makes him dive in head first for you too. His eye never leaves you. God has a laser focus on you and there’s simply nothing he won’t do for you in his pursuit. There are no limits to his love for you. Even when we are so undeserving of this love, he lathers it on us.

Jesus tells us about God’s reckless love in Luke 15: 3-5 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them gets lost, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others in the wilderness and go to search for the one that is lost until he finds it? And when he has found it, he will joyfully carry it home on his shoulders.”

It seems reckless to leave behind the 99 to go looking for the 1, but this is exactly what God does for us. And don’t get all jealous because at some point or another, you were the one he came looking for. The 99 have the safety of each other. The one separated and alone is in danger and the great Shepard will pursue that one until it is found, then carry them home on his shoulders.

Do you have a child on the wrong path in life? Pray for them. Your prayers unleash God’s relentless love on them. Stand in the gap for them and seek God on their behalf while they’re hellbent on screwing up their life. You think God doesn’t hear your prayers for your child? Oh come on Mama, there’s nothing more powerful you can offer than your prayers. It’s far more powerful than your pushing, pulling, or preaching. It’s their time to be the 1 and God has an opportunity to prove his relentless love for them right now. AND HE WILL.

Remember, you were once the 1 he had to come searching for. You were once the 1 who was living below their potential. You were once the 1 lost in the mess. You were once the 1 who had wandered away. And God has proven there’s no mountain he won’t climb. There’s no wall he won’t kick down. There’s no shadow he won’t light up, coming after you. There’s no limit to his love, nothing he won’t do, nothing he can’t do, no amount of times he won’t try.

I never left God, but I sure put him on the back burner as I pursued success. He waited patiently for me then came to rescue me when I failed. I was the 1.

You were once the 1, and maybe you’re taking another turn at being that 1 again. You’ve wandered away again. You’ve separated yourself from the very things you know keep you close to God. You’ve been under attack, the storms have been raging, life got hard and when you ran maybe you ran in the wrong direction. Know this, God is in pursuit of you right now. He’s not giving up on you.

Oh the overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love of God. It chases me down, fights ’til I’m found, leaves the 99. I couldn’t earn it, I don’t deserve, still he gave himself for me. Be overwhelmed by his love today. Overwhelmed by his never ending love for you and overwhelmed by his reckless love for the ones you love.

Maybe you recognize those words, the words of one of my favorite songs called “Reckless Love” by Corey Asbury. Listen to it today. Know that at this moment, God is climbing mountains for you. He is kicking down walls for you. He is making a way where there has been no way. He is shining his light on those areas of darkness. He is showing you the answers in the middle of the confusion. He is preparing to carry you back on his shoulders and throw you a big celebration when you get there.

Where’s he taking you? He’s taking you back to the life you were created for. Back to who you were always meant to be. You may have wandered away a bit and gotten lost along the way, but there’s an overwhelming, never-ending, reckless love in pursuit of you. Always!