What are you pursuing that holds your attention? Your perspectives, motives, and follow-through all depend on who or what you are pursuing.
Our most worthy pursuit is growing our relationship with God.
This relationship is pivotal, whether we treat it as such or not. It affects our present and determines our future. As we grow closer to God, we grow in godliness. This takes time and intentionality, as all valuable relationships do. The more time we spend with the Lord, the more he affects us, as happens with good friends.
What a privilege to be able to know the Creator, the eternal King, the Savior. He is not distant, out of our reach because of his magnificence. How defeating it would be to try in vain to reach God.
Rather, God allows us to get to know him personally through Jesus. How meaningless life would be if we were not able to know the Lord, who designed us and sacrificed his life for us. But do we live with that mindset on a daily basis?
The amazing reality is that God wants us to know him. His creation reveals aspects of who he is (Romans 1:20) so that people are without excuse of knowing there is a God. God revealed himself to us through Jesus (Colossians 1:15a). God’s choice to allow us to get to know him through knowing Jesus demonstrates his earnestness in wanting a relationship with us.
Jesus told his disciples, “If you really know me, you will know my Father as well” (John 14:7a NIV, letter K in Follow and Lead). The apostle John says in 1 John 2:3 and 6a that evidence of knowing Jesus is keeping his commands, walking in his ways. Knowing Jesus changes our life!
When someone wants to be your friend, don’t you feel special? Do you put a little extra effort into that relationship, be it time or conversation, knowing that you are already valued? Does this knowledge of being chosen by God affect how you pursue God? When was the last time you really thought about how incredible it is that the God of the universe, who loves you immensely, wants to reveal himself to you so you can know him?
Thinking about that might propel us all to linger longer in his presence, captivated by who he is. We might recount how Jesus spent his time on Earth – he is our example of how to live single-focused for our Heavenly Father. We might recount how we have seen God’s hand in our life and praise his great name. We might meditate on how God wants us to show him honor. Then, with the Spirit’s help, we strive to put that into practice to demonstrate to God his value in our life.
Let’s take time to delight in the Lord and pursue him as our treasure!