I’m struck by what I’ve just watched on the news. More racial accusations, mean spirited politicians, unresolved border crisis, flooding and more political corruption. Life as usual. The broadcast ends with the smiling anchor saying, “Good night, we’ll see you tomorrow night.”
Good night? That’s it? It would be great if just once an anchor said with a deep sigh, “Oh, God help us, we desperately need your help.”
We see someone we think has it all together and we wonder, how did he do it? Maybe if we read the same book he read, spent some time with him and things would come together for us as well. Really, what do we want? We want comfort and happiness, not bad news and reality.
We want to escape from… or be like…or have more or have less…
In the midst of very trying times the apostle Paul said, Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead. Be very careful how you live, not as unwise but as wise. Use your head. These are desperate evil times. Ephesians 5:14-16
We are not in Eden, the Matrix, or Disney World
We live in the real world where life doesn’t go as we planned. People break our hearts and we do the same. In this broken fallen world is there something that can give us a deeper sense of sustaining hope? Yes.
Despite all the bad news that comes our way when we know we are truly loved we can continue on. When we know we are wanted and pursued by someone it gives us hope to hang in there. Because many of us have never felt so loved we have pursued lesser things that have left us numb and empty.
The good news is that God loves and pursues you
Helen of Troy must have been something. Thousands were killed in the battles between Greece and Troy over who would get Helen. Would it be her husband Menalaus or Paris, Prince of Troy? Few have ever been so pursued.
Many have never been pursued or even noticed all their lives. Who has passionately pursued you in the right way?
In the movie The Last of the Mohicans, Nathaniel, raised by the Mohican Indians is in love with Cora, the daughter of a proud British Colonel. In one of the final scenes Cora, Nathaniel and others, are trapped behind a waterfall with a rival Indian tribe closing in.
Before Nathaniel jumps into the massive waterfall to escape he passionately tells Cora,
“just stay alive no matter what, do whatever you have to do and no matter where, no matter how long, no matter how far, I will find you.” In the climax he relentlessly pursued and rescued Cora.
God is saying the same thing to you. He believes you’re worth pursuing
The divine romancer will passionately come after you no matter where you are or how far you’ve gone! Even if you don’t want to be pursued He will not give up on you.
God could have given up on His love affair with mankind. He could have demanded our loyalty or made us love Him, but he didn’t. Thankfully, we don’t have to get God to love us by doing something right. There is nothing we need to do to make Him love us, because His love for us is not based on what we’ve done, but whose we are. We are His.
This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. I John 4:10
Before the foundations of the world God loved you and wanted you to be in His family. He wanted you then and still does today. You are constantly on His heart. He will never forget you or get tired of you. He is totally committed to you!
His passionate love for you will never be exhausted. May His love for you always be your hope.
