PURSUING GOD

“But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.”  (Matthew 6:33 NKJV)

A number of years ago I met Phil Vischer, the creator of VeggieTales, so I decided to read his book “Me, Myself, and Bob: A True Story About Dreams, God, and Talking Vegetables.” The book documents the rise and fall of VeggieTales. After VeggieTales declared bankruptcy and the dream fell apart, Phil did some soul searching. And in the book he shares some honest thoughts and questions. Let me share one question and one thought.

Here’s the question: “What do you love more, your dream or God?”

Here’s the thought: “At long last, after a lifetime of striving, God was enough. Not God and impact or God and ministry. Just God.”

Alright, I lied. Here’s one more thought: “The impact God has planned for us doesn’t occur when we’re pursuing impact. It occurs when we’re pursuing God.” 

-- Mark Batterson 

#6487

DO YOU LOVE TO WORRY?

Jesus told His disciples, “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”  (Matthew 6:31-34 NIV)

Nobody loves to worry any more than anyone loves to pay taxes or have a root canal or host their in-laws for a week. But those things need to be done, so we do them. Maybe the real question is, do we love our stuff more than we do everything else, especially worry?

When we lean into our troubles instead of God, worry replaces worship; in effect, we’re saying, “God, I don’t think You’ve got this.” We would rather trust our worry than His strength and provision. Worry impacts our witness: Who wants to listen to Christians who think their God isn’t big enough to handle every problem?

Worry is a warning -- a yellow light telling you that a choice is coming up fast. Choice one: take your worry and turn your concerns over to God, trusting Him to help you get through them. Or choice two: take your worry as a badge of honor, bravery in the face of God’s apparent abandonment -- a sign that you care more about your problems than God does.

Worry is a sign that you’re paying attention, that you care about what’s going on. That’s good. But if you hang on to that worry, you risk making it an idol. So really, who do you love more, worry or God? 

-- Quentin Guy in “The 5-Minute Bible Study for Men: Pursuing God”

#6300

SEEKING GOD

“Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord.  (Jeremiah 29:12-14a NIV)

Come near to the holy men and women of the past and you will soon feel the heat of their desire after God.  They mourned for Him, they prayed and wrestled and sought for Him day and night, in season and out, and when they had found Him the finding was all the sweeter for the long seeking. 

-- A. W. Tozer in “The Pursuit of God” 

#5167

HEAVENLY MINDED

“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” (Colossians 3:1–4 ESV)

All too often we live shallow, earthbound lives that are preoccupied with the temporal. We're caught up in the trivial pursuit of the here and now. In the midst of our hectic schedules, we give too little thought to eternal things above... We must be more heavenly minded if we are to be any earthly good.

-- Steven J. Lawson in “Heaven Help Us!”


#4709

THE DIVINE INITIATIVE

One of the major themes in the Bible is what we call the divine initiative. Life and salvation begin with God, not us. This means that God reaches out to us and seeks us out in love and grace.

The concept of the seeking God is unique to the Judeo-Christian faith... From the beginning to the end, the Bible is the story of the God who seeks His people and despite their unresponsiveness and unfaithfulness, does not give up on them. God will not let them go. God pursued Israel and pursues us with the indestructible love of a parent. In the closing of the Twenty-third Psalm, the phrase “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life” can also be correctly translated, “Surely goodness and mercy shall pursue me all the days of my life.” God with His goodness and mercy does not trail behind us, but rather He pursues us and chases us down. 

-- James W. Moore and Bob J. Moore in “Lord, Give Me Patience!... And Give It to Me Right Now!”   


#4427

HEADED TOWARD GOD

Once I started toward God, I never really stopped and was never really in need of starting over.

Was I ever in need of confession and forgiveness and grace and a touch of providence itself?  Certainly.  Was I in need of turning toward God as though we were strangers to each other and had never met?  No, not once.  Which makes me no different from you, though it may well have taken me a lot longer to figure it out.

Once we start home toward God… we simply do not ever turn around and head in another direction.  There is no other direction.  And in the moments when we feel as if we are so turned around that we will never get home, somebody turns up and nudges us a couple of points to starboard, whichever direction that is.  Suddenly, without being particularly conscious of it or faithful about it, we sense that we are headed toward God again full blast.

-- Robert Benson in Between the Dreaming and the Coming True


#3576

TO KNOW AND BE KNOWN

[Jesus prayed] "And this is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John17:3)

It seems to me, as time goes on, that the only thing that is worth seeking for is to know and to be known by Christ -- a privilege open alone to the childlike, who, with receptivity, guilelessness, and humility, move Godward.

-- Charles H. Brent


#3263

OUR PURSUING GOD

Our God is not patiently standing by and waiting for us to offer love; He is actively and vigorously pursuing us… He is the father running down the trail to embrace the prodigal son even before the boy can speak his act of contrition. He is the mad farmer showering a full day's wage on men who hadn't even worked. He is Jesus forgiving the sinful woman even before she spoke her sorrow. He is the king lavishing a banquet on beggars. These are all symbols of a God whose love for us is so active, so strong, that by human standards He would be at least, said to be mad.

-- Andrew Greeley, quoted by Joni Eareckson Tada in Glorious Intruder


#2607

BOXING GOD IN

I have learned that we can't box God in. But we keep trying to put boundaries around our Lord. We insist that God follow ways that we approve of. No wonder, then, that when we come across places in the biblical story that don't appeal to us, we discard them with a philosophical wave of the hand. "God isn't like that," we say -- as if we are the ones chosen to determine the nature of God. Scholars often complain about anthropomorphism in religion; that is, that we create gods in our own image. Ironically, scholars themselves are often guilty of doing so, as they decide how much of the biblical portrayal they will choose to endorse. Unhappy with the divine image they find in the Scriptures, they opt for a divinity more in their own perceived image. But we're all like that in some measure.

-- J. Ellsworth Kalas in New Testament Stories from the Back Side


#2357

FINDING GOD IN THE SILENCE

"Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." (Psalm 46:10 NIV)

We need to find God, but we cannot find Him in noise or in excitement. See how nature, the trees, the flowers, the grass grow in deep silence. See how the stars, the moon, and the sun all move in silence.

-- Mother Teresa, quoted in The Green Bible


#2341