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!”

God loves running rebels. He sent his son on a search and rescue mission for YOU. Yes, you. His mission was to seek and save the lost, and bring you in close for a relationship with the Father. And that’s still his mission today … keep bringing you in.

And he will stop at nothing to reach you with his grace and draw you in to a relationship with him. Could that be 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 and God’s not giving up on you, or because God wants to show you his power through it all so you never doubt again.

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 don’t twist that, he doesn’t NEED anything from you. Your performance is not required. Your winning record isn’t necessary. 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.

Elevation Worship has a song called “Jireh”, and it starts like this:
I’ll never be more loved than I am right now
Wasn’t holding You up
So there’s nothing I can do to let You down
It doesn’t take a trophy to make You proud
I’ll never be more loved than I am right now

I don’t know why, but those words just get me. Maybe because I’m the girl who, deep down, always feared being a disappointment. I always feared rejection. Failure haunted me. But to know I can’t let God down because I wasn’t ever holding him up. God isn’t impressed by my trophies, so he’s not disappointed in me when I don’t win them. I couldn’t possibly be more loved than I am right now.

And maybe you need to hear that too. There’s nothing you could do that would make God love you more than he already does. You don’t have to perform for him. Your failure hasn’t distanced him.

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.

You have not escaped from his Spirit. You haven’t gotten away from his presence. He has been on the hot pursuit for you, and girl, you just can’t lose Jesus. Through it all, he’s been right beside you, whether you recognized it or not.

You’ve been caught from the fall. You’ve been captured from the running. You’ve been chosen.

So today, we lay down our pursuit of impressive trophies and accolades and find complete assurance in who created us, and who he created us to be. And right here, today, we declare we don’t want to dismiss the opportunities he has made available to us. Even when we don’t feel good enough, God declares we are.

No more settling for my comfortable life when I have a great big, beautiful life right in front of me with my name on it.
Not my way, but yours, God.

May you be drawn deeper into the life he wants you to live, all by his grace.

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