Sometimes, I do not hear anything from God. I don’t feel anything in prayer or worship. These times, though frustrating, are the most fruitful part of my walk with Him. God doesn’t give me a guaranteed formula to encounter Him. If I get one down, it might work for a while, but eventually He moves.
“On my bed night after night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him but did not find him.” Song of Solomon 3:1
This is what going deeper with God looks like. The familiar formula stops working. I dig deeper. I stay in my Bible. I’m constantly in prayer. I am desperate to hear from Him. I seek Him with a fervor that wasn’t there when I had my promised formula. This is where I discover God’s character.
“I opened to my beloved, but my beloved had turned away and had gone! My heart went out to him as he spoke. I searched from him but I did not find him; I called him but he did not answer me.” Songs 5:6
At the height of my ache, my lovesick endurance, I finally have some encounter, some revelation and He comes flooding back into my heart and soul. I’m out of the valley and onto a higher mountaintop.
This is the chase that God loves to take us on. We as women were created in His image, desiring the same kind of pursuit from men. Like us, God desires to be admired for His beauty. He flaunts Himself in the sunrise and the sunset. He moves, inviting us to chase Him. It is in this admiration and chase that we go deeper and deeper into this relationship with Him. We discover the Bridegroom God.
He doesn’t leave because He is distant, but rather because He desires nearness, and is constantly drawing us to closeness. To chase after Him when He seems distant is to go after intimacy. Relentless pursuit is to love Him with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
