As I was thinking about my last blog where I wrote about Jesus leaving the 99 and chasing after the 1, I started to think about how God created us to chase or be chased.
God pursues us and we pursue God. Men pursue women and unfortunately, some women pursue men. God didn't create women to be pursuers, he created them to be responders. It's the same in the botanical world. The pollinator (bee) seeks out the flower. In the animal world, predators chase after their prey. Now, God could have done that differently. He could have had the prey, once seeing they were about to be hunted, could have been made to freeze in place and drop dead of a heart attack. That takes all the fun out of the pursuit, plus it wouldn't give the prey the free will to fight for their life by running away. You'd have a lot of unfit, fat predators in the animal kingdom that way. God is consistent, if he did that in the animal world, he would probably do that in the human world. The human race would be wiped out in no time. I digress.
So, why would God create 'the chase'? Why would he give all of us a desire to go after something, to chase after something with passion? I think part of it is a survival instinct. In this day and age at least in this country and other developed nations, we don't have to chase after our food, we just leisurely drive our car to the grocery store. No violence, no running, no chase.
But inside us we have this drive to achieve, to conquer something. Some people conquer mountain tops or marathons or their Olympic event. Some people seek after a disciplined life. No matter what we decide to chase after, God gives us a choice. It's called free will. This free will gives us the choice to decide to chase after good things or bad things. Some who seeking joy and satisfaction in this life chase after things that aren't good for them, like drugs, alcohol, ungodly relationships, or material possessions. After a while, they discover these things don't bring satisfaction and the joy is very short lived.
Seeking after God and his will is a good choice. If you look up the word Seek in your Bible's concordance, you will find all kinds of verses on seeking. We're told to pray and seek His face and turn from our evil ways, to seek His will in all we do, not to seek honors, to seek the Lord while we can, not to seek ending our marriage, and that God rewards those who sincerely seek Him.
God designed us with a desire to pursue Him. He also gave us that same desire to pursue interests. It's our choice whether we use that desire to pursue good things or evil things. Choose the good, always.
Blessings this cool Monday.
Showing posts with label Pursuit. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pursuit. Show all posts
Monday, September 15, 2008
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Plan and Execute
Sounds military, doesn't it? But we got our military structure from God, didn't we? We also got our Judicial system from God, just look at the old testament. The strategy of planning and executing also applies to our individual lives, right here in the 21st century. Here's an excerpt from Wide Awake by Erwin McManus.
"If you're going to create the life of your dreams, eventually you have to stop thinking about it, dreaming about it, imagining it, hoping, scheming, planning, or even praying, and you have to actually do something. You have to act. You have to execute. You have to step into the real world and bring the change that you can only see through the eyes of faith."
"Do whatever you must to be prepared for the future you desire. This requires not only foresight but also discipline.
If you begin to capture a picture of the life you dream of but do not prepare for the challenges you will face to make them reality, you will not see it happen. Your future will haunt you like a restless ghost of the dreams whose death you caused through neglect. I see this all the time: people who have huge dreams but are unwilling to pay the price to see them through."
I think Erwin is speaking mainly of those folks in the entertainment industry. They come to L.A (where Erwin is located) and want to be movie stars or singers or dancers or actors on stage. He gets a lot of those in his church. But those of us in the Central Valley can have big dreams too, and that's all they ever end up being. Please don't confuse a dream with a call. I believe dreams are sometimes planted in our hearts by God, giving us a passion for something that we want to pursue. Sometimes, however, they're of the flesh. Something we want for ourselves, like becoming a millionaire. We have to seek God to see what His will is for our lives. He usually reveals a passion, then gives a call to go do something with it. A passion is what drives us. It gives us energy to pursue something when our flesh says, "I'm exhausted!" It encourages us to pick ourselves up when we've been knocked down.
What is your passion? If you could do anything for God and knew you couldn't fail and you had all the money, resources, time, and freedom to pursue it, what would it be? I'd love to read your comments on this. Blessings on this warm, sunny Thursday.
"If you're going to create the life of your dreams, eventually you have to stop thinking about it, dreaming about it, imagining it, hoping, scheming, planning, or even praying, and you have to actually do something. You have to act. You have to execute. You have to step into the real world and bring the change that you can only see through the eyes of faith."
"Do whatever you must to be prepared for the future you desire. This requires not only foresight but also discipline.
If you begin to capture a picture of the life you dream of but do not prepare for the challenges you will face to make them reality, you will not see it happen. Your future will haunt you like a restless ghost of the dreams whose death you caused through neglect. I see this all the time: people who have huge dreams but are unwilling to pay the price to see them through."
I think Erwin is speaking mainly of those folks in the entertainment industry. They come to L.A (where Erwin is located) and want to be movie stars or singers or dancers or actors on stage. He gets a lot of those in his church. But those of us in the Central Valley can have big dreams too, and that's all they ever end up being. Please don't confuse a dream with a call. I believe dreams are sometimes planted in our hearts by God, giving us a passion for something that we want to pursue. Sometimes, however, they're of the flesh. Something we want for ourselves, like becoming a millionaire. We have to seek God to see what His will is for our lives. He usually reveals a passion, then gives a call to go do something with it. A passion is what drives us. It gives us energy to pursue something when our flesh says, "I'm exhausted!" It encourages us to pick ourselves up when we've been knocked down.
What is your passion? If you could do anything for God and knew you couldn't fail and you had all the money, resources, time, and freedom to pursue it, what would it be? I'd love to read your comments on this. Blessings on this warm, sunny Thursday.
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