Relentless!

The Relentless Pursuit…

The term “relent” means to change your mind, just like the word “repent.” As Sons and Daughters of the Living God, we are called to seek God with all of our hearts, to keep seeking, and to keep seeking!

Do you see God at work around you?

Jesus tells us that the Father is always at work. To be the kind of people who radically change the world in which we live, we must attune ourselves to what God is doing and participate with Him.

One man on a relentless pursuit was the Apostle Paul. Listen to what he wrote in Philippians 3:7 & 8. “Whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them rubbish that I may gain Christ.”

‘God will not hold us responsible to understand the mysteries of election, predestination, and the divine sovereignty. The best and safest way to deal with these truths is to raise our eyes to God and in deepest reverence say, “O Lord, Thou knowest.” Those things belong to the deep and mysterious Profound of God’s omniscience. Prying into them may make theologians, but it will never make saints.’ -A W Tozer The Pursuit of God

In II Chronicles 7:14, a very familiar passage of scripture, God says to us that if we will humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, turn from our wicked ways; He will hear from heaven and forgive our sins and heal our land. This is an awesome promise of God, but conditional on our part. WE must do the first part, and he will be faithful to fulfill His part.

Current evangelicalism has (to change the figure) laid the altar and divided the sacrifice into parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stones and rearrange the pieces with never a care that there is not a sign of fire upon the top of lofty Carmel. [See 1 Kings 18 for the allusions.-ccp] But God be thanked that there are a few who care. They are those who, while they love the altar and delight in the sacrifice, are yet unable to reconcile themselves to the continued absence of fire. They desire God above all. They are athirst to taste for themselves the `piercing sweetness’ of the love of Christ about Whom all the holy prophets did write and the psalmists did sing…..Sound Bible exposition is an imperative must in the Church of the living God. Without it no church can be a New Testament church in any strict meaning of that term. But exposition may be carried on in such way as to leave the hearers devoid of any true spiritual nourishment whatever. For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience, they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His Presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the very God Himself in the core and center of their hearts. -A. W. Tozer Chicago, Ill. June 16, 1948.

The other side of the road is God’s relentless pursuit of us. John 4:23 says that God seeks people to worship Him. II Chronicles 16:9 says He looks all about the earth seeking a heart that is loyal to Him, someone He can show himself strong through. God is relentless in His pursuit of us. He wants all of us, not just part. Jesus said he was like a man who has lost a sheep, and left the 99 to find the one; and like a woman who lost a coin, and turned her house upside down to find it. In both instances, how great was the joy when the sheep and the coin were found! Jesus will not relent in His pursuit for us, for God’s desire is that ALL men would repent and come to Him, that none would perish!

I pray that a desire for Him would burn in you so great that your spirit is greatly troubled when your pursuit begins to slack. I pray that you would also get the “heart” of seeking Him, and not change your mind about what the Bible says is ours to have just because you don’t see immediate results. Hold fast! Don’t’ relent! “Create in me a clean heart oh God! Renew a steadfast spirit within me! ~King David