February 27, 2019 THE PURSUIT
1 Timothy 6:11 “But you, man of God, flee from all of this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.”
1 Corinthians 6:19 “Do you not know that your bodies are the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you,”
Colossians 1:27 “….Christ in you the hope of glory.”
Hebrews 13:5b “….For He hath said, ‘I will never leave Thee, nor forsake thee.’”
What I want to share today may sound like a play on words, but it’s not; I believe that grasping what is presented will produce good fruit in us. I have wrestled with this topic for a long time, but recently, the Lord has given me a clearer understanding-and that’s what I want to share. For my entire Christian life I have heard that we need to ‘pursue the Lord,’ or ‘seek the Lord,’ but it seems that I always had an underlying question when I heard that admonition from well-meaning believers. Also, there was some vagueness and lack of instruction as to how to ‘pursue the Lord.’ The basic question or thought that I had was if I have Jesus as Savior, if Jesus redeemed me, if the Holy Spirit of God lives in me, if I have been joined to Him, then why do I need to ‘pursue Him?’ I would ask, ‘Has anyone ever found Him?’ or how or why need I pursue what I already have? With that being said, bear with me as I attempt to relate how the Lord is giving me some needed clarity about all of this. As a believer, we do have Him, He is in us, we have been made new, and etc., but yet there are things we need to pursue. The all-important question is what is our pursuit all about? In my own spirit and mind, the clarity that the Lord is giving really simplifies and brings into single focus what we are to be about and just what it is that we are to pursue. Simply said, now that we belong to Him, and because we have ‘found’ Him or have been joined to Him, we are to be out pursuing the things that comprise the kingdom of God-such as love, endurance, gentleness, kindness, patience, love, and the list goes on. The kingdom that Jesus demonstrated and expressed with His life, the words He spoke and all of the commands He gave, as well as all of the one-another verses we find in the scriptures present a clear picture of the kingdom of God, and it is those things that we are to pursue-to put into action. Again, because we ‘have’ Him (actually, He has us) our main focus in life should be that of expressing His kingdom here where we live. It is clear; no more asking or trying to figure out how we are to ‘pursue’ God, our single mission is to implement the things that make up the kingdom of God. In the next blog, we will see that there is a way in which we are to seek the Lord.
Micah 6:8 “He has told you O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”
Blessings,
Buddy
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