God Pursues Us Everyday…

God has been with us everyday of our lives, whether we:

 

-Believe in Him or not

-Love Him or not

-Spend time with Him or ignore Him

-Listen to Him or don’t care about His opinion on your life

-Follow only our own cleverly invented ideas of who WE THINK God is, as opposed to Who He actually is…

 

He has been wooing us,taking care of us,drawing us close to Him, inviting us to connect with Him every day of our lives…

 

…and He has been doing this by taking “very much care of you” (my three year old daughter Autumn) even though we don’t deserve it.

 

Question: Has anyone ever successfully comforted you when you were sad, disappointed, frustrated, angry, hurt, scared, etc.?

 

What a blessing.

 

Think back to what that person(s) did to help you feel better.

Think back also to how the experience of them comforting you in your pain helped the two of you to grow closer as friends, family members, etc.

 

Luke 11:11-13 NIV:  Jesus said, “Which of you fathers, if your son asks for a fish, will give him a snake instead? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!”

 

What is Jesus saying here?

 

If we know how to take care of those we love,

If sinners like us know how to successfully comfort someone who is hurting,

Doesn’t the perfect God of the universe–whose very nature IS love–know how to take good care of us?

 

If we give our lives–dreams, hurts, sins, wishes, desires, fears, talents, money, time, attention–over to Him,

won’t He take “very much care” of our lives, much better than we could do with our lives on our own?

 

Here’s my point: Every time we have ever been sad, disappointed, frustrated, angry, hurt, scared–GOD HIMSELF has comforted us.

 

Now someone might say: No way. God didn’t comfort me; I simply “got over” my sadness “over time.”

 

Fair enough. Let’s talk about that.

 

No one ever just “gets over” something on their own. I am teaching my son 21 month old son Elijah how to walk up the stairs, and I will hold his hand so that he doesn’t fall. But sometimes I’m in a hurry, and I will literally pick his whole body up by his one hand and carry him up the entire flight of stairs in around 4 seconds (even though this is probably wildly unhealthy for his poor wrist ligaments!).

 

In his mind, he probably thinks he just “got over” the stairs nicely, did a great job climbing, huh?

 

But we all know that he didn’t just “get over” the stairs on his own; I carried him; I did the hard work; he was just along for the ride.

 

And some say “time heals all wounds.” Wrong. Scientifically–AND THEOLOGICALLY–this statement is wrong. A rusty car in your driveway, if left there, will still be rusty in a week, month, year, decade. It will not “unrust” by itself over time. This is the law of entropy. Over time, if left alone, everything gets worst, starts to break down, etc. Now the car can get cleaned up, buffed, waxed, repainted, repaired, etc. But only if a skilled technician puts his/her attention, effort, skill, and resources toward it.

 

The same is true with us.

 

Whenever we have ever “gotten over” a disappointment, GOD is the reason we have gotten over it, GOD is the reason that, in those moments when our pain starts to fade a bit and we start to laugh again with tears still damp on our faces, we begin to feel life and joy again. God has been comforting us the whole time, and He has done so because He loves us UNCONDITIONALLY, whether we love Him back or not.

 

I bring this all up because this helps me want God, this helps me pursue God when I want to do anything else but pursue Him.

 

And so here we are on this retreat, trying to get to know God better; we might think God is all about RULES, or that GOD is an emotionless cosmic robot who punishes and rewards people in ways that are beyond our understanding.

 

But God is not that way; that is not how He reveals Himself through the Bible.

 

He is loving,

He is kind, and

He has been (and will be!) with us everyday,

guiding us,

loving us,

comforting us,

whether we ever believe in Him or not.

 

Doesn’t that fact make you want to love God back, want to get to know Him better, want to maybe even surrender your entire life to Him?

 

‘Cuz if He blesses us so much when we clutch our life and keep it from Him,

when we cover up our shame

and take all the credit for our victories,

imagine what He can do when we freely and willingly give ourselves completely over to Him through faith in His Son Jesus…

 

Jeremiah 29:11-14 (The Message): God Himself says,

“I’ll show up and take care of you as I promised and bring you back home.

I know what I’m doing.

I have it all planned out—

plans to take care of you,

not abandon you,

plans to give you the future you hope for.

When you call on me,

when you come and pray to me, I’ll listen.

When you come looking for me, you’ll find me.

Yes, when you get serious about finding me and want it more than anything else,

I’ll make sure you won’t be disappointed. God’s Decree.”

 

God pursues you everyday…

 

…won’t you start pursuing Him back?

(please click HERE for practical ways to get to know Jesus in your daily life)