True Love

True love is something to behold.  It is not a quick infatuation.  It does not flee easily.  It sits and waits and patiently grows with nurture over time.  Repeatedly in Song of Songs we read where the lover, or the woman says,

Oh, let me warn you, sisters in Jerusalem:
Don’t excite love, don’t stir it up,
until the time is ripe—and you’re ready. (8:4 MSG)

She is speaking from experience.  She is speaking to the rashness of infatuation and the idolatry of things that quickly fade. We pour our time and talent and energy into things that are right in front of us but do not last.  But love is a commitment more than it is a feeling.  It can “be stirred up” into a deep feeling but love encompasses more than passion and more than sentiment.

When we first come to know the extraordinary gift of God’s salvation, we are excited.  We are stirred up with gratitude and our response is a fiery one.  Many of us jump in with both feet and run headlong into the relationship.  We have conviction that we have found the answer and we have arrived at our destination.  We fill our schedule with things we believe will fuel this relationship.  We focus on how to know Him more and to love and serve Him fully.

Yet for many of us, as time goes on, life gradually encroaches on this relationship.  We put aside our time alone with Him for more pressing needs.  Our jobs, our families, our commitments beckon to us to give a little more.  They draw us further away in little steps.  The rituals of our relationship with God become less pressing from our original fervor to give Him all our time and heart.  We encounter conflict that wounds us and disappointment in our initial expectations.  Slowly we move into a creeping apathy and the passion we once knew has been snuffed out.

By an act of God’s ever pursuing grace, the recognition of our sad state, and the conviction of his Spirit, we are beckoned back to our first love.  God prepares us this time to know and receive  his love that has never lessened or changed based on our behavior. God’s love for us far exceeds our understanding. 1 Corinthians 13, speaking of true love, tells us:

Love never gives up.
Love cares more for others than for self.
Love doesn’t want what it doesn’t have.
Love doesn’t strut,
Doesn’t have a swelled head,
Doesn’t force itself on others,
Isn’t always “me first,”
Doesn’t fly off the handle,
Doesn’t keep score of the sins of others,
Doesn’t revel when others grovel,
Takes pleasure in the flowering of truth,
Puts up with anything,
Trusts God always,
Always looks for the best,
Never looks back,
But keeps going to the end.

^8-10 Love never dies.  (1 Corinthians 13:4-8 MSG)

As we yield again to God’s love for us we learn to love Him and others and ourselves. This love is “as strong as death.”  It will not end. It cannot “be quenched”. It continues to hope, it continues to grow, it beckons us into eternity with Him even while we face the schedules, meetings, carpools, laundry and busyness of today.  This deeper place and deeper longing is the crux of Song of Songs.

What’s on your tombstone?

What kind of spiritual legacy will you leave behind? What kind of impact are you having on the world around you? How will your family remember you? What will people say about your life? And more importantly, what will God’s assessment of you be?

We have just finished reading the Books of Kings and Chronicles.  It has been a long haul through the sordid history of the people of Israel as they fluctuated in and out of faithfulness to God. With each of the kings, there has been a final evaluation of their lives.  I can see it written on their tombstones:  “He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord.”  Or conversely, “He did what was evil in the sight of the Lord.”  And then each king’s life has been explained according to how successfully or pitifully he followed God and served the nation. All the kings’ actions seem to flow from this basic orientation. Those who remained faithful to the Lord saw blessings and prosperity. Those who served other gods and followed their own sinful passions wreaked havoc on their people and ended their lives with personal and corporate destruction.  Their belief shaped their actions.  And that had significant consequences for their lives and their eternities.  They left a spiritual legacy.  Their lives have been recorded in the Bible (the most well read book in history) to serve the rest of us as either an encouraging signpost toward godliness or as a stark warning away from destruction.

I remember my father-in-law’s funeral.  I was standing in the reception line with the other family members greeting the guests who had come.  I heard one phrase spoken repeatedly about my father-in-law by the people who knew him.  “He was a man of integrity.”  My father-in-law was a stock broker so these words carried great weight.  They were coming from people who watched his life and the way he conducted business over the course of 30+ years. They saw who he really was.  Earlier in life, a colleague once told him, “You could be making a lot more money if you didn’t have so much integrity.” It may have been intended to deride him.  I heard it as a top honor given him.

What kind of legacy are you leaving behind?  Are you living for others rather than merely yourself? Are you teaching your children to know and love the Lord?  Are you affecting the people around you with the hope of God’s kingdom?  What kind of light do people see coming from your life?  Remember Jesus’ words: “Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven,” (Matthew 5:15-16).  Are others seeing God and his glory through the way you live your life? What will your tombstone say?

 

 

The Odds Are In Your Favor

Despite the way things looked, Hezekiah, king of Judah, knew the odds were completely in his favor.  He knew the battle was over before it had even begun.

Yet, at the natural level, the Jews were completely outnumbered.  They faced a massive army which had defeated every other nation it had come against.  The Jewish troops, though capable, were inferior to the hardened and experienced Assyrians. Additionally, the defenses of Jerusalem were not enough to withstand a long siege.  Fear was rampant among the people.  Lies and doubts about God and the king were being circulated.  “Your God is no better than the others we have already defeated.”

What army are you up against today?  What mountain are you attempting to climb?  What are the doubts that echo in your mind? Are you wondering if God is going to show up?

Despite appearances otherwise, Hezekiah knew the truth.  He knew that despite the way things looked, the One in whom he had put his trust was both faithful and mighty to save. The invisible but real God would take care of them so long as they trusted in His care for them. “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or dismayed before the king of Assyria and all the horde that is with him, for there are more with us than with him. With him is the arm of flesh, but with us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles,” (2 Chronicles 32:7-8 ESV).

God is greater than any foe you might face.  He is bigger than the company you work for; he is more creative than the dilemma you are wrestling through. He is able to do more than you can ask or imagine.  He is particularly interested in you and your welfare. He is not concerned by appearances. He is never taken off guard. He is never surprised. He is always in control. He is looking for you to trust Him.

While we live in a temporal and seen world, we also exist in an eternal and invisible realm that is all around us.  God has designed it so that in this world, we must live our lives by faith; that is, by trusting in him. The hard part is: we can’t see Him.  What we can see are the problems we face. We can assess the obstacles that are before us.  We can feel the anxiety this causes us.  And in the face of these things, God wants us to trust him.  To trust in his care for us. To trust his faithfulness. To trust that he is able to handle all our problems. To trust that he will never leave us. To trust that his love is true and everlasting.   To trust that despite the way things look, he is mighty to save and will never let us go.

We cannot give in to fear; especially when the answers we are seeking seem slow in coming.  We cannot give into despair, particularly when the rescue we are crying to God for seems delayed in its arrival. We cannot listen to the lies that often flood our minds and overwhelm our feelings. We must resist every deceptive message that comes at us whether in our thought life or from the unbelieving and faithless world around us — all of which can cause us to doubt God’s character and the trustworthiness of the scripture.  All of which are sent to tempt us to live according and primarily by what we can see rather than by trusting in the living God.

Know this: no matter what you face, do not be afraid or dismayed. Remember who He is and all He has already accomplished in your life. The Lord your God is with you to help you and to fight your battles for you.

Mercy

God’s mercy is something extraordinary.  In the Old Testament it appears as though mercy is tied to obedience; but this is not always the case.  His mercy is greater than that.  In the New Testament, his merciful desire to draw us to Himself for all eternity is let loose through the cross of Jesus.  It is profound.  It reaches beyond the foolish choices we make and it covers generations.

In 2 Chronicles 29 we meet Hezekiah.  He is a king who, “Did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, according to all that David his father had done,” (vs 2 ESV).  His father, Ahaz, however, “Did not do what was right in the eyes of the Lord, as his father David had done, but he walked in the ways of the kings of Israel.”  We see this ebb and flow of good kings following bad kings and vice versa throughout the books of Kings and Chronicles.  As Israel and Judah disobeyed God and moved further from him, God allowed them to reap the consequences of their choices.  For me, the lowest point in their history manifests in the civil war between them.  But in 2 Chronicles 29 God’s mercy reappears in the leadership of Hezekiah.

“In the first year of his reign, the first month, he opened the doors of the house of the Lord and repaired them,” (2 Chronicles 29:3).

Hezekiah’s first order of business was to restore the Temple of the Lord.  He brought in priests and Levites to clean it out and to re-consecrate it.  The Temple had been neglected and corrupted.  It took them eight days to bring out all the “uncleanness they found” and eight more days to consecrate it.  Burnt offerings were made to cover sin and to atone for all Israel.  After that Hezekiah restored worship to the Temple.  As burnt offerings were made, the Levites began to worship God through music.  Hezekiah then commanded that thank offerings be brought.  The people brought so much that there were not enough priests consecrated to handle it all and so the Levites had to help out.  It’s interesting to note at one point that the priests and Levites were ashamed and embarrassed at how unprepared they were. It’s clear that their hearts were being revived and they regretted their shortcomings before God.

Then Hezekiah invited all of Judah and Israel to return to celebrate Passover.  In the Message translation, it states that it had been so long since Passover had been celebrated that, “No one living had ever celebrated it properly,”  (2 Chron. 30:5). There was a lot involved in properly celebrating the Passover and many of the gathered congregation were not rightly set apart (consecrated) to celebrate it according to God’s directives.  Therefore, many did not eat the Passover meal. Because of this, Hezekiah prayed, “May God who is all good, pardon and forgive everyone who sincerely desires God, the God of our ancestors.  Even-especially these who do not meet the literal conditions stated for access to the Temple.”  The text goes on to say that, “God responded to Hezekiah’s prayer and healed the people,” (2 Chronicles 30:19).

With God’s mercy enacted towards sincere hearts, this Passover feast and celebration was the greatest seen since the days of David and Solomon.  The people returned their hearts to God and he received them and blessed them.  God clearly was delighted in His people despite their shortcomings.

God meets us where we are today.  We have all made choices we regret.  Some of us live in self condemnation, in denial, in pride.  We have turned away.  The beauty of Hezekiah’s story is that Israel and Judah were a complete mess.  There was little hope of redemption.   They were fighting and killing one another and worshiping every pagan idol and god around.  But one man stood up and turned back to God.  He called those around him to turn back to God.  To everyone who heard and heeded the call, God’s mercy covered and cleansed them.  In the cross of Jesus we receive God’s mercy.  We don’t have to go back to a long list of rituals and sacrifices to stand cleansed before God.  We simply stand with Jesus Christ and receive His mercy.  We stand under the Lamb of God who was sacrificed on our behalf. And when we do, we get to start over.

A Deeper Longing

The past six months have been long and slow.  I have been physically sick for the first extended time of my life.  This road is lonely and depressing at times. My spiritual life has felt detached.  A desert; a long dark night of the soul. It has been particularly rough the past few weeks. Though spring has been emerging in the outside world, the bleakness of winter remains inside me. It is not that God has left me; rather, my sense of his imminent presence has dulled.  This too, is a first for me – at least for this long a time.  Certainly there have been short seasons where he seemed far away (usually because I had moved away from Him due to my own choices), but this has been different. So far as I can discern there has been no apparent sin separating us; just the heaviness of sickness and the exhaustion of my mind and emotions from the pain and discomfort.  God feels absent.  I know in the core of my being that this is untrue.  He is always with me because he lives in me. But practically and experientially I have had little sense of his presence and little of the joy that has been my strength for so many years.  I don’t feel like myself.

Gradually, I have noticed a longing that has begun within me. It is a longing for the One who loves me. A longing for the One whom I love.  In the Song of Songs, we hear this same kind of longing developing in the Bride. She cries, “On my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loves; I sought him, but found him not,” (Song 3:1 ESV).  While on her couch at night a painful longing seizes her. She’s heartsick with the fact that her Beloved isn’t there with her. She can’t stand that she has lost the feeling of his nearness. It seems almost as though he has forsaken her.  Has he forgotten her? Has he changed his mind? Did he move on? Does he no longer love her?

This longing compels her to seek the one “whom her soul loves.” She is willing to get up in the night to search for him throughout the city.  It doesn’t matter the time. It doesn’t matter the inconvenience. She is single minded in her pursuit of the one she loves.  I remember a time when I was courting my wife Catherine and feeling this same way.  We had not seen each other for a few days.  I was agitated.  I felt out of sync.  I wanted so desperately to see her that when she returned to town I made a bee-line for her parent’s house even though it was late in the evening and the drive was across the city. I remember the look of surprise on her father’s face as I inquired whether I might see her for a few moments.  He looked at his watch, hesitated briefly, and let me in the door. I only stayed a short while; I remember that her father stayed up watching the television in the adjoining family room while I was there.  It didn’t matter to me. I was with the woman I loved and her nearness was enough.

I’ve noticed that my soul has begun to long again for the One whom I love.  I have found myself crying out to Him with renewed intention. There is an urgency within me to re-connect with Him despite the time, the inconvenience, the seeming absence, the distance. It’s not that I have stopped seeking Him during these months. Only that my desperation for Him has grown again of late. Perhaps that’s the reason for “dark nights of the soul” we all experience in our journey with Him. These renew our pursuit and passion for the One whom our souls love and to strengthen us to go hard after God again.  To not take for granted His presence but to pursue Him with a new depth and strength again.

An Illegitimate Widow

There’s nothing quite like a strong yet gentle reprimand from God coming through the scripture and repeated by someone close to you who loves you.  I received that today.  And I’m sitting with it.  Paul may be referring to widows in Timothy’s congregation; but the principle he is pointing to applies to us all.  “You can tell a legitimate widow by the way she has put all her hope in God, praying to him constantly for the needs of others as well as her own. But a widow who exploits people’s emotions and pocketbooks—well, there’s nothing to her.” (1 Timothy 5:4)  I didn’t catch the meaning of this the first time I read it.  A second reading plastered it right between my eyes.

I’m not a widow but if you were to climb into my brain for a day you might think I was one.  You might think I was orphaned and destitute as well.  Honestly, you wouldn’t even have to climb into my brain, you could just hang around me for a few hours and listen to the faithlessness that too easily escapes from my lips.  It often comes out when friends or acquaintances ask me about our daughter and her plans post graduation.  I start well intentioned and share how thrilled we are that God has healed her and that she’s graduating from high school.  But then I slow down and measure my words about her next year.  “She’s going to take a year off,” I follow my first statement.  “And look at colleges.”  That’s safe enough.  But then the bitterness seeps through and I have to add, “I honestly don’t know where she can go that we can afford.”  I’ve convinced myself that I’m being transparent and vulnerable to my friend.  But what I’m being is faithless.  And my faithlessness is poisonous.

Paul points out a “legitimate widow” as a woman who has lost all her source of provision but has come to depend solely on God himself.  Not only does she believe He is going to provide for her every need, she believes He is going to provide for everyone she brings to him in her prayers.  She believes on behalf of others. She is “legitimate” in that she has truly lost everything; knows her desperate need and knows the only source available to provide for her.  Why go to friends for help when the owner of the bank has given her full access? She gets it.  She understands her true source of provision.

In my mind, I am an “illegitimate widow.”  I have genuine loss in my life.  We lost several years of our child’s life; we lost a fortune in medical costs.  We lost relationships.  But instead of sincerely trusting and believing that God will provide for her and our needs, I would rather share my concern with you.  I can’t see his provision for her future or ours in light of what we’ve lost; so I would rather lay it before you in hopes of your gentle knowing look and kind consolation.  You might follow me down my tunnel of woe and help me find a way out.  Outside of God.  I can rationalize my verbage all day but in the end, my words are the rotten fruit of my own faithlessness.  And if you hang around too long, they will poison you, too.

The rebuke I received was not unkind or harsh.  It was liberating.  You can’t be set free from something you can’t see.  What an opportunity to return to the arms of my Heavenly Daddy; or to the Lover of my soul.  God is both.  He is all I need; all my daughter needs; and my line of credit for all He has called and equipped us to be.  In whatever future place or school He calls our sweet, healed girl, he will foot the bill.  He’s already doing the surgery needed on my heart.  He’ll pay for the recovery and post surgical care, too.

I’m working on my new response in case you ask about my daughter’s future.  She has a great life ahead of her; a life of freedom and joy and I can’t wait to see what doors He will open and how He will take her there.

God’s Passion

Got your attention, didn’t I?   Today we start in Song of Songs.  This sexually explicit book carries a bit of taboo in some circles and honestly, on a public blog about God,  Jesus, and encouraging a Christocentric life,  it might seem inappropriate to some.  On the one hand, many of us are numbed by the pervasiveness of loveless sex in our culture so we are open to receive God’s holy and healthy intentions on the issue. At the same time we wouldn’t dream of mentioning sex and God in the same sentence; it appears sacrilegious.  And who wants to think about God and sex in the same sentence?  Seriously.    But something nudged me to reread chapter one of Song and I realized I just had to talk about it.

First of all, let’s dispel taboo.  Its okay to enjoy Song of Songs.  It’s okay to read the explicit descriptions and find beauty and goodness in them without being embarrassed. God designed us for a mutually pleasing sexual relationship within marriage between a husband and wife.  He purposed sex to reflect a number of things. The most important of which is a reflection of what our relationship to God is intended to be. Seriously?  For me that’s always been an awkward thought.  God and sex in the same sentence again.  But think about it.  God wants us to be in an intentional, passionate,  intimate, pleasing relationship with him.  What relationship better communicates complete abandonment in passion for someone else than the sexual one? What other relationship has the actual possibility of bringing forth an entirely new life?

We love our friends but even towards close friends we keep certain boundaries.  A marriage relationship is closer, but marriage to me, is more about running a marathon at a steady pace than it is about reckless devoted passion.  At least after you’ve been in one for a while. At the same time, marriage is designed to house the splendor of the sexual relationship.  Housing it in a marriage entrusts that it can flourish and has a safe place to store passion and depth of emotion that you can’t find in an uncommitted relationship.  It’s a paradox.  Those who will not commit to marriage complain that marriage lessens the fervor and excitement of the sexual relationship; yet they grow bored over time and move on to another partner.  In marriage, the commitment itself creates a longevity and depth of emotion that nourishes a passion that cannot exist outside of it.  There is a closeness only found when when you’ve weathered rejection, betrayal, disappointment, and heartache together and chosen to stay committed to one another anyway. That closeness and commitment fuels passion.  And it mimics God’s heart toward us.

When I read Song of Songs, I get the sense that there is so much more to experience in the depth of God’s passion for me, and there is so much more I want to give back to him.  This book gives us a glimpse of a greater longing, a higher calling and a deeper connection to God than any other. So in the days ahead as we read it, it is okay to enjoy it.  And it’s worth a few extra minutes reflecting on your relationship with God in the midst of reading it.

The Character of a Leader

Having poured his life into sharing the Good news, Paul now writes Timothy to guide him in developing leaders who reflect the character of Jesus. Serving as a leader in a Christian community is a noble endeavor.  It is challenging on many fronts. Yet leading in a church is very different from leading in the secular community.  You may be able to run a bank or a Fortune 500 company but you may not be qualified to lead other Christians.  Paul teaches that a leader in the body of Christ must lead first by being servant to all.  The biggest challenge is to remove our “self” from the equation and to live from Christ in the core of our being.

Paul writes:  A leader must be well-thought-of, committed to his wife, cool and collected, accessible, and hospitable. He must know what he’s talking about, not be overfond of wine, not pushy but gentle, not thin-skinned, not money-hungry. He must handle his own affairs well, attentive to his own children and having their respect. (1 Timothy 3:2-4).  Paul points out that if a leader can’t manage his own personal life, how can he manage the body of believers?

Yet I would caution against using this letter as checklist of behaviors or a resume of achieved morality. Instead, it is intended to serve as a guide to discern the development of Christ’s character in the potential leader’s spiritual journey.  These qualities cannot be created separately from the work of Christ in you.  Don’t start with this list of behaviors and work to become a great leaders.  Rather, start with God’s Spirit in you.  Use this letter as a guide to notice where the Spirit of God has His way with you and where He does not.  The fruit of a God focused leader emerges as a by product of a life simply centered on Him.

The qualities of a great leader are really just the fruit of a life centered in Christ.  No amount of trying can produce what only God’s Spirit brings to the table.  Years ago I heard a great illustration from Joyce Meyer.  Fruit is produced on trees and bushes through nourishment by the soil, air and rain.  It is a synergistic process that occurs naturally and easily when all the elements are present.  The tree is planted in the soil, watered and exposed to sunshine.  These provide nourishment.  As the tree roots grow deeper into the soil, more nourishment comes.  It forms sap in the tree that flows throughout the tree to form leaves and ultimately, fruit.  It does not happen overnight but rather after a season of preparation.  We don’t see or hear it happening.  So it is with us following God.  We root ourselves deeply into him.  We receive nourishment from His Word, from His Spirit, from yielding our lives to Him and saturating ourselves in Him.  Over time, we, too begin to bear good fruit.  It is a result of His work in us and our yielding to Him.  Not our efforts.  Can you imagine walking through a fruit orchard full of trees and hearing the trees groan and struggle to produce fruit?    No.  They don’t do that.  The fruit is produced quietly and almost effortlessly as the tree receives nourishment.  No extraordinary effort is required. Just consistent placement in nourishing soil, exposed to the sun and watered regularly.  When drought hits, the fruit is affected.  When pests invade, the fruit is affected.  Yet a strong tree grounded in healthy soil bears delicious nourishing fruit to be enjoyed for a long time.

Our Spirit lives are similar.  A daily, consistent, authentic walk with Christ develops the “sap” in us to produce great fruit effortlessly.  The fruit is a sign that someone may be called to lead.  The checklist Paul writes becomes more of an assurance that someone is equipped by God’s Spirit to lead rather than a “how to” guide for someone to figure out how to lead.  Leadership ultimately comes from His work in us rather than our efforts from ourselves.

 

 

Just Pray

The first thing I want you to do is pray.  Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know.” 1 Timothy 2:1.

Prayer is at the heart of what a God centered life looks like.  It is in its simplest form, having a conversation with God.  Talking to Him, listening to Him, engaging with Him.  Seeking His thoughts about things going on around us first prevents us from operating from our self oriented ones.  I cannot over emphasize the importance and power of prayer.  Paul talks about it over and over through his letters.  It creates an unshakable foundation to build our lives upon.  It articulates to God that we sincerely believe in Him and that we love Him.  It opens the door of our minds to His presence and allows Him to have continual access to shaping us.

If we say we believe in Him yet we don’t have conversation with Him, what does that say about us?  Can you imagine falling in love with someone, marrying this person, and then just not speaking to them? Ever?  Not listening to them? Ever?  Asking them to stay outside on the doorstep until you have ten minutes to invite them in?  Worse yet, not even living together but simply calling on the phone when life is completely out of control. “Things are bad, please send money.”

Many of us treat our relationship with God this way.  He is far off and distant and not engaged.  We operate through life in a deistic reasoning but never engaging with the all powerful living Creator of the Universe.  Others of us treat God as the repair guy we call when things around our house of faith are broken.  Some see Him as an authoritarian figure looming heavy over us.  He demands relentless perfection we cannot achieve.     None of these are accurate depictions of God.

The more you read Scripture, the more God reveals his true self to us.  The clearest picture we have of Him is in Jesus Christ.  The Gospels show how Jesus lived, breathed, walked and ate with us!  He talked, laughed, loved, cared and shared himself.  He healed, carried and forgave us.  He was God in human form.  And now His Spirit is in each of us that receives him and believes in Him.  If you have believed His message and have received him, His Spirit is alive in you!

What keeps you from talking to Him?  Fears? Worries?  He wants to hear those. He wants to alleviate them. And He can.  Disappointments?  He already knows about it.  Tell him more. Listen to His thoughts and gain his perspective.  Hurt and anger?  He can handle it.  He is so much bigger. Express it to Him.   Bitterness?   What is the point of holding on to that?  He already carried our offenses on Himself when He was crucified.  Those are dead and gone unless you continue to resuscitate them and feed them. Apathy?  He is the author of Love itself.  Ask him for more of His love.  He loves loving us!  Anxiety?  Breath.  Breath Him in deeply.  Keep breathing.  He will slow down the spinning and set the pieces of your life in order.  Just allow Him.

As you walk in conversation with Him, listen closely.  He wants to share His thoughts with you.  Bring every concern, every person, every leader you can think of to Him.  Bring every situation in your life to Him and trust Him to bring about good for you and others in these.  Even when you can’t see it up front. Trust His heart that He loves you, He hears you and He has great plans for you.  Yield to gratitude when you don’t understand. He will bring you peace. Walk every step with him every day.  He will meet you wherever you are.  Just pray.

Do you really want God?

The whole country felt good about the covenant promise—they had given their promise joyfully from the heart. Anticipating the best, they had sought God—and he showed up, ready to be found. God gave them peace within and without—a most peaceable kingdom!  (2 Chronicles 15:15 the Message)

There’s a story about a proud young man who came to Socrates seeking knowledge. He walked up to Socrates and said, “O great Teacher, I come to you for knowledge.”

Socrates recognized a pompous numbskull when he saw one. He led the young man through the streets, to the sea, and chest deep into water. Then Socrates asked, “What do you want?”

“Knowledge, O wise Teacher,” the young man said with a smile.

Socrates put his strong hands on the young man’s shoulders and pushed him under water. Thirty seconds later he let the young man up. “What do you want?” Socrates asked again.

“Wisdom,” the young man sputtered, “O great and wise Teacher.”

Socrates crunched him under again. Thirty seconds passed, thirty-five. Forty seconds. Socrates let him up. The man was gasping. “What do you want, young man?”

Between heavy, heaving breaths the fellow wheezed, “Knowledge, O wise and wonderful…”

Socrates jammed him under again. Forty seconds passed. Fifty seconds.  “What do you want?”

“Air!” the young man screeched. “I need air!”

Socrates answered, “When you want knowledge as much as you have just wanted air, then you will have knowledge.”

The same holds true for God. Perhaps even more so. When you want Him, He will make Himself known to you.  And when you seek Him with all of your heart you will have Him. Know this, though, God pursues you first. God always comes first. It’s called prevenient grace.  Before you ever want Him, He is already seeking you, drawing you, wooing you, urging you to pursue Him.  As A.W. Tozer said, “The impulse to pursue God originates with God, but the outworking of that impulse is our following hard after Him; and all the time we are pursuing Him we are already in His hand.”  He goes on to say, “God is always previous. In practice, however, (that is, where God’s previous working meets man’s present response) man must pursue God. On our part, there must be positive reciprocation if this secret drawing of God is to eventuate in identifiable experience of the Divine.”

In 2 Chronicles 15, we see this reality playing out.  King Asa determined to seek God with everything in him and he led the people of Judah to do the same.  The result was joy filling their hearts and God giving them rest all around (2 Chron 15:14-15).  All of this occurred as a response to God making the first move. The Prophet Azariah, under the power of the Holy Spirit, instructed Asa, “God will stick with you as long as your stick with him.   If you look for him he will let himself be found; but if you leave him he’ll leave you.” (vs 2)

Here’s the great news; God already made the first move by showing up in Jesus Christ.  He’s already pulled down the walls that would separate us from himself. Through his cross, He has forgiven us of our sins and freed us from sin’s stranglehold over our lives. He has torn down the wall of hostility that existed between us so that we might approach Him freely. When we are reborn by the Holy Spirit, God re-establishes within us the capacity to deeply know him and to fellowship/commune with him.   Jesus encouraged this pursuit of God when he said, ““Here’s what I’m saying:

Ask and you’ll get;
Seek and you’ll find;
Knock and the door will open.

^10-13 “Don’t bargain with God. Be direct. Ask for what you need.” (Luke 11:9-10 The Message).

God’s intention is greater than you simply being  “saved” by Him and “going to heaven.”  He has given you the capacity to grow in the knowledge and love of him. As Paul said to the Thessalonians, “May the Lord  direct you hearts to the love of God and to the steadfastness of Christ,” (2 Thess. 3:5).  Has God become the primary thing that you earnestly pursue?  Are you willing to go hard after Him?  Do you make the time for such a pursuit? Do you really want God?