I Will Pursue You

I sat in that room full of a 40+ girls in Destin, Florida heart racing. It had been a week of intense discipleship and ministry training with the Redeemed Girl Miniseries team at the Redeemed Girl Institute. The theme verse that week was from (Isa 61:3) “They will be called oaks of righteousness,
a planting of the Lord
 for the display of his splendor.”

Up until this point we had been learning, “who was a redeemed girl?” She is an Oak of Righteousness, She knows her Redeemer, She Renews her mind, She’s a Christ-like friend, she knows her identity, she sits at the feet of Jesus, Honors her father and mother, is filled with the Spirit, Takes up her sword, Changes her wardrobe, and walks by faith. Then came the day I was deep down dreading, “A Redeemed Girl: Waits on God’s Best.”

Why should that bother me? I mean hello that is part of testimony. Because I knew I was going to hear a phrase I had come to loath, “Let the guy do the pursing.” Anytime someone started teaching on relationships that always came up, and I couldn’t stand it. I knew so many amazing couples who had Christ-centered marriages and they all had different stories. In some cases the girl made the first move and pursued at first and in some cases the guy did. In some cases it was love at first sight, and then others it took some time before they saw each other as more than friends. We have all heard the stories, and so somewhere over the years this whole, “the guy needs to pursue the girl” just began to rub be the wrong way. But anytime I would hear it, I also would get very convicted because I had a habit of being the pursuer. I knew that was not the way God designed it, and so there I sat in Destin, Florida and I couldn’t escape it. I couldn’t leave.

I sat there and braced myself for a beating. But, I didn’t get one, instead I got grace. As I looked at the list of all the things God’s best for me should be (taken from Scripture) and I saw that one of them should be he's “a leader in the relationship." I knew that was coming. It was the beginning of God showing me the beauty of this word Pursue. What it even means to be pursed by a guy, but more importantly to open my eyes to see that I am first and foremost pursued by God.

I had a tendency to “pursue” for several reasons I came to later see. One of them being impatience and lack of trust in God, and two being that I didn’t think I was worth pursuing. I thought, "if I don’t step in here and make this happen it’s not going to." For the next year ½ everywhere I turned from books I read, to songs I heard I saw the pursuit of my God; the relentless pursuit of a fiercely loving Savior. Who is jealous for me. Before I could appreciate and embrace the pursuit of the man God had for me I had to first realize and embrace that I have been and always will be pursued by the Lord Jesus Christ; the lover of my soul.

From the beginning of Genesis to the last word of Revelation we see God’s pursuit for his bride. God reveals himself to us in many ways; all his different names tell us something about His character; who our God is. The one thread that weaves itself through all of them is love. He is Love! It’s not only something God does; it’s who He is.

There is no one like our God, and there is no love, like the love of God. None!

There is song by Jesus Culture that I came across just a few weeks ago called Pursuit. The first time I came across this song I was stunned by the title number one. God was teaching me so much about what it means to be pursued by him, so to see a song with that title immediately jumped out at me. Then as I listened to the lyrics I was stunned and struck by the beauty.

There are so many songs that are out that talk about God’s pursuit of us. They might not say it our right, but the lyrics always describe God’s relentless pursuit of our ever wandering hearts. But this song was different; it was coming to God and saying, “I will pursue you…back.”  I will respond to your pursuit of my heart!

It’s like if a guy is pursuing a girl, if the girls never turns around and responds and begins to pursue back that is not much of a relationship. At some point there has to be a mutual pursuit of one another’s hearts. Allowing that person deep into your heart. It's scary, but exciting all at the same time. 

Thats is what blew me away about the lyrics; and I will share them in a minute. It’s coming to God and saying, “Yes Lord, please pull back the veils I have been hiding behind; Yes Lord, please come in and search me and know me; Yes Lord, I want to know you more. I don’t want to be were you are not. I want You more than anything else. It’s a beautiful word picture of falling in love with the lover of our souls. When your in love you don't want to be without that person. You want to be in their presence. Its a love song back to the One who is already madly in love with you. It's saying, I love you too, to the One who loved us FIRST! 

Strip everything away, till all I have is You

Undo the veils, so all I see is You

Strip everything away till all I have is You

Undo the veils so all I see is You

I will pursue You, I will pursue Your presence

I will pursue You, I will pursue Your presence

I'm pressing in to You so do not pass me by

I'm breaking through the boundaries

I will not be denied

I will pursue You, I will pursue Your presence

I will pursue You, I will pursue Your presence

Open my eyes, 
search me inside, 
I cant live without Your presence, 
I can't live without Your presence 
–Jesus Culture: Live from New York

I hope to never get over the truth that I am relentless pursued by God; that summer sitting in that room was the beginning of God showing me the beauty of pursuit, and he started with simply telling me who I am in Him and too Him!