It’s true. Back in high school, I read Captivating by John Eldridge, because as we all know, high school is the time of your life when we “are ready” to find that person to be with, and I wanted to know how girls thought, and what they wanted from guys. And as I read it, I couldn’t help but feel like just as John Eldridge said girls like being pursued by guys, that I wanted to be pursued by God. I think it’s a wonderful quality of God, and His pursuing is relentless.
First, there is a point that needs to be made. A lot of people think that pursuing means chasing, and that’s not always true. Sometimes its letting your love be known and allowing them to make a decision. Also, people a lot of time when they love someone, they confuse control for love. Control is not love. Freedom is love. If something is forced, it’s not love.
So, what that means is that if God is pursuing us, He will not control us and make us love Him. There is no love in that. You can’t have forced love.
So, does God ever leave us? Does he stop pursuing us after He has knocked on our hearts for so long, and we repeatedly ignore Him? Does He get sick of it and walk away? I would say it’s a resounding no, and here is why I think that.
First, we will start with Adam and Eve. We all know the story. They ate the fruit, and sinned against God. When they realized this, they were afraid of what God would say. They ruined a perfect relationship with the God of the universe. This idea blows my mind. God says sin is a sin, but can you imagine being in their position?
They SAW and had daily fellowship THE creator of the universe, and they were the first ones to ruin that. Can you imagine being on both sides of the two different stages of mankind? There was the perfect always in fellowship side with God, then they saw the destroyed, we are separated from God because of our sin. Wow.
And that’s where God pursued them. There they were, knowing they were the ones who messed it up. They broke the fellowship with God. And they hid because of their shame and guilt. And did God punish them because of it? Yes, but every action has a consequence. Punishment does not mean abandonment. God punished them, but God sought THEM out in the garden after they sinned. He pursued them, ask them what they did, and you know what He did next? He covered their shame and guilt. He sacrificed animals to cover up their sin, even though THEY chose to walk away. God pursues.
Where else does God pursue? I think we can see it with the nation of Israel. All throughout the Bible, we see Israel going against what God told them, right after he showed up and saved them. Multiple times. And yeah, God mentioned destroying them to Moses and Moses pleaded with Him not to, but I don’t think they was God abandoning anyone. I think that was a test of Moses character and if He had a heart like Christ. And he did. If God actually wanted to destroy the world, He wouldn’t let man change His mind.
But we see with Israel, that even throughout all their sin, God says they are still His people. Always. Sin doesn’t change that. God is still pursuing.
Then, we have Psalm 139:7-8: “Where can I go to escape your Spirit? Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go up to heaven, You are there; if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.”
That’s a powerful verse. God is saying, obviously, if you have your mind set on heaven, His Spirit is with you. But then He says what is mind blowing. If you made your bed, your residence, you plan on living in evil, in sin, in direct rebellion of who God is, His Spirit is still there, waiting, hoping for you to turn to Him. Crazy? I think so. Pursuing? I would say, very much so, yes!!!
Then, we can forget the parable of the lost sheep. One sheep out of 99 runs off, and what does God do? He runs after it.
Interesting fact about me: I had a pet sheep when I was younger. And, to be honest, if she went and got stuck somewhere, I wouldn’t go get her. That sounds bad, but one sheep out of one and I would go help her. But, in this story, the Man has 99 sheep and only 1 of those runs off. What does He do? He pursues it. He searches and searches until He finds it. And when He does, He rejoices. It brings God happiness to pursue us!
Finally, the story of the cross. The greatest pursuit in all of HIStory. If you read the Bible, you know that God had all these laws that people had to follow to be in fellowship with Him. And, also, you read that people had a hard time following them. They would break the laws all the time and in return, break God's heart.
Then we get to the Gospels. And what does God do? He pursues us. How? By sending His ONLY PERFECT Son in pursuit of those who deliberately deny Christ to His face. That shouts pursuit. He sent His one Son to fulfill all those laws, never having to abide by them again, because He wanted to pursue us and have fellowship with us.
I think it’s an important truth to always see. God is always pursuing us, and to say He stops after so long because you ignore Him is a horrible lie. He pursued 1 sheep out of 99. He pursues a person who makes their make in Sheol. He pursues when you sin and mess up a perfect union between man and God. The only thing we need to do is allow God’s pursuit to win our hardened hearts.
