Many times we often utter statements like ‘God, I want to encounter You.’, ‘God, reveal Yourself to me, I want to see You.’ or ‘Give me more of You, Jesus’. Yes, those are pretty good things to say to God, but do we really mean them? Do we repeat such sentences with our minds alone or are these really the deepest cries of our hearts? Do we have just loud voices but empty words? We say we want to pursue God, but why? What is the real reason? Is it just because we want something from Him, for instance, money, gifts, a promotion at work, good grades at school or even a mate? Is it just to say we are Christians or we truly desiring to know God and we want a close relationship with Him?
Pursing or seeking God means to follow after Him, to find Him by searching. When we want something we go after it, we relentlessly search until we find it. When we seek God wholeheartedly and completely, He promises us that we will surely find Him.
But from there you will seek the LORD your God, and you will find Him if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul. Deuteronomy 4:29 NKJV
Searching for God doesn’t require a map or some detective investigation. In Acts 17: 27, Paul expresses one of the most reassuring truths that God is “not far off from each one of us”. God is close to us and He is ever accessible to those who sincerely want to be close to Him.
The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth.
Psalm 145:18 NKJV
To first pursue God, we must have a passion for Him. Passion means to have strong, extravagant fondness, enthusiasm or desire for anything and first and foremost we must have this for God. Our passion for Jesus is established and rooted in His passion for us.
We love Him because He first loved us.
1 John 4:19 NKJV
We can only love Him after we receive a revelation of His love for us. When are in love with someone, we are passionate for them. We want to spend time with them and know more about them. We love to be around them and in their presence. We make time for them and we are not ashamed of them. We trust them. It’s the same thing with Jesus. When we are in love with Him, we want to be in His presence and in His word. We want to know Him and we will find ways to get closer and closer to Him daily no matter what it takes. Paul shares his desire to know Christ in Philippians 3:10 “that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection”.
We cannot love someone we don’t know and to know God means to actively pursue God, investigate Him. We can’t know God, without talking to Him, reading about Him and allowing Him to speak to us. God knows us and we know His voice.
My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.
John 10:27 NKJV
A relationship with God is an extremely passionate one. God ignites a passion in our hearts for Him and this passion consumes us in every way possible “for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:29 NKJV), where we see nothing else as important but our main focus and aim is just to go hard after Him. When we enter into the divine presence of Jesus we are astonished and in awe. That astonishment turns into a passionate, burning desire to stay in the presence of our Lord. The Bible highlights this for us.
And they said to one another, “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us on the road, and while He opened the Scriptures to us?”
Luke 24:32 NKJV
This passion is then radiated and projected and others see it and they are inspired to also get on fire for Him and develop that passion also. Once His passion consumes us it will be seen in the way we live – our behaviours, speech, how we treat one another.
This Easter as we reflect on the passion of Christ, as we sit and meditate on the great love God so has for us that compelled Him to send His only begotten Son to come and die on the cross in our place, may our hearts come alive with passion and desire for Him. May His passion so ignite ours to love and passionately pursue Him as He first loved and pursued us. May this season be a reminder to us of the great fiery all-consuming love story that we have been written into and called to be a part of. May it strike our hearts to move from a place of sitting and reflecting to a place of acting, moving and challenging others to do the same. A passion for Jesus is a call to action that overcomes you when you encounter Jesus. It is never dormant, hardly silent and seldom unnoticeable. It boldly goes where no other love will, just as it bravely did on the cross thousands of years ago. This encounter is so life-changing that our only desire is to continue to have more and more encounters with Christ.
Right now, you may be pursuing God, but not passionately. You may have a deep desire for Him but you are not acting on it. However, it is not too late. You can get on fire from God today and all it takes is a prayer.
Prayer Starter:
Dear God, I thank You, for first pursing me. I thank You that You are always near to me and I can call out to You at any time. Today, God I ask You to ignite a passion for You deep in my heart. A passion for Your presence and Your Word. I ask You to fan the flame of my heart that they would not go out, but they would burn even brighter and brighter for You…. Amen. [/column] [column width=”1/1″ last=”true” title=”” title_type=”single” animation=”none” implicit=”true”]Article Submitted by Daneisha Brathwaite
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