For years I believed a big, fat lie. I believed that God just tolerated me--that he HAD to love me because he was God...and that is what God is supposed to do.
There were years where I thought that God was just tolerating my existence until he took me home to heaven. Ya know?! Ever felt like that?
I had this silly notion that God must feel the same way about me...as I felt about me.
That my performance was totally my ticket to heaven and that was the determining factor of God's love for me...and it wasn't looking very promising...
Somewhere I went skipping down a path of works based grace.
My head knew God was good and that He loved me...but my heart felt something much, much different.
Weighed down by my messes.
STUCK.
Maybe, because I know my own junk...
just like you know yours...
and our self worth tells us that maybe we aren't worth it.
Maybe I know my own guilt...
just like you know yours...
and the past plays with the future.
Yeah-I am screwed up, too.
Maybe I know my own mess...
just like you know yours...
and our own control issues make us press the life right out of living.
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God. is. Good.
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Do you just know a lot of facts about the Bible or do you trust that His word is true?
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So why is it so hard to chase a good God with abandon???...and why do I waste so much time on STUFF that is temporary??? Jennie Allen said...we try to make wind feel like concrete. We base our lives on chasing the wind. We have a place in each of us--that eternal place--that only God Himself can fill...and we try to cram all kinds of things in that spot-$,friends, stuff, religion, food, popularity only to come up more empty than before.It is a crazy train wreck.It doesn't work.
So how do I chase God????
To run this race-to pursue God with total abandon,we need to begin at the starting line
--the cross.
...SURRENDER...
Coming to our Jericho's and watching God tear down walls.
Walking in obedience because
God. IS. Good
and His ways are good.
Running the race--
chasing God
--it is worth it.
And it starts by TRUSTING
that you are who HE says you are.
Yes..He says that you are...
not guilty anymore
not filthy anymore
I love you.
Mercy is yours.
Your not broken anymore
not captive anymore
I love you.
Mercy is yours.
If you think that God has some wrath left over for you--you don't know Jesus and you won't chase God with all your heart. You'll be like the cowering kid waiting for the next blow instead of the beloved child holding the gentle hand of your Father.
Trusting that He has all of the messes figured out.
Knowing that He is for you.
Resting in His promises.
Leaning on the very Grace
that He provided.
Our wrong beliefs about who God is--what Jesus has done on our behalf--and who we are as a Child of the King are the reason we don't chase God with passion!!
Our strongholds need torn down.
Our pride needs torn down.
The walls of self sufficiency
and the lies of the enemy need torn down.
And that begins when we bend our knees in prayer.
Ask.
Ask.
Ask.
God is worth chasing and He is worth laying aside the sins
that weigh us down.
As you listen to the words of this song, may mercy and forgiveness help to bend your knee before
Grace Incarnate.
This morning-trust who God says you are and chase Him
until you hear God singing his love over you.(Zeph. 3:17)It is a still small voice and it is beautiful sound.
My prayer for you, sweet sister, is that in learning to chase God-
you come to a greater more intimate knowledge that really-all along-He was pursuing you.
