“Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life” (Psalm 23:6)
Life is one big pursuit. As babies, we pursue food, drink, and sleep. As we grow, we pursue the ability to walk. As we become children, we pursue relationships. This pursuit carries over into our teen and adult years, when we add to our pursuit education, the right job, a spouse, a safe place to live, and health just to name a few of the things we chase after.
Have you ever thought about the fact that God pursues us? Ezekiel 34:11 says of God, “I myself search for me sheep and look after them.” Romans 3:11 tells us, “There is no one who seeks God.” Of all the things we pursue in life, God is not one of them. When at some point in our life we come to faith in God through Jesus Christ, it is because God has pursued us and brought us to the place of faith. You could say that God stalks us, woos us, and tracks us down in order to have a relationship with us.
Now here is a great truth about God pursuing us. Once we come to faith in God through Jesus Christ, He does not stop pursuing us. His continuing pursuit of us is one of the great benefits of the salvation we receive. Our key verse this week (Psalm 23:6) says that God continues to pursue us with his goodness and unfailing love. This tells us that God is near to us, following us through our life journey. It also tells us that he is always ready to do good things for us, as well as give good things to us. By his grace and care, he takes responsibility for every detail of our lives – both spiritual and temporal. He will never leave us. He will never turn his back on us. He will always be our Shepherd and Pastor, as promised in verse one of Psalm 23. And he will never withdraw his love from us. Whatever you and I pursue in life, nothing will ever have more value than the value God has for us. At all times he desires what is best for us, and he chases us down in order to give it to us.
If you don’t feel like you are experiencing God’s pursuit to give you his best, I encourage you to return to the first verse of the 23rd Psalm and examine if you are truly allowing God to be your Shepherd and Pastor. Sometimes God’s sheep stray out of the right pen.
Darlene