The word “pursue” means to “continue or proceed along (a path or route),” and when I chose that as my word of the year to focus on, I wanted it to be reminder to continue on the path of faith and relationship with Jesus. Not just casually, but with everything I have. With my heart, soul, and mind connected and invested.
Pursuing God isn’t just believing in Him and calling yourself a christian. To pursue Him means to actively take steps to know Him and love Him more deeply. To open your heart to Him like you never have before, and to allow Him to be the driving force in your life above all else.
This year, I’m choosing to pursue God in a deeper and more intimate way. I’m no longer fine with being wishy-washy and not allowing Jesus to penetrate into every aspect of my life. I will pursue Him life I never have before and I hope you’ll join along!
Pursuing More Wisdom
One area of my life that I really want to grow in is gaining more wisdom and godly understanding. Reading the Bible isn’t about accomplishing a reading plan or saying you’ve read through the whole book (guilty!). It’s about choosing to dig in deep and really lean into what the Lord is teaching through it. God is wisdom, and if we want to become wise ourselves, we have to get to know the Creator of true wisdom and ask Him to help us receive it.
For the Lord grants wisdom! From his mouth come knowledge and understanding.
Proverbs 2:6
With wisdom comes great responsibility. We shouldn’t seek to gain wisdom so we can sound theologically intelligent. It’s about much more than that. Wisdom comes from a shift in your heart posture. Are we allowing the Lord to ripple into our hearts and minds so that we can respond to and reflect Jesus to others? Wisdom brings clarity of God’s character and steadfast nature, even when our circumstances are bleak. Godly wisdom helps us show the love of Jesus to others and how He bridges the gap between us and God.
Pursuing wisdom is directly correlated to pursuing the Lord. All wisdom and understanding come from Him, so we must empty ourselves and allow Him to fill us. By filling ourselves with the wisdom only He can give, we don’t allow any room for the lies of this world.
Let the message about Christ, in all its richness, fill your lives. Teach and counsel each other with all the wisdom he gives. Sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to God with thankful hearts.
Colossians 3:16
Pursuing More Gratitude
It can be easy to look at our circumstances and think of all the negative or difficult things we’ve gone through. We don’t naturally have a grateful heart for those things because we only see the hard and the ugly. Instead, we can approach our challenging situations with gratitude, knowing that God can and will use it for our good if we allow Him to.
Be thankful in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you who belong to Christ Jesus.
1 Thessalonians 5:18
It can also be difficult to remember to thank God for the good things in our lives as well. We tend to get a little blinded to how gracious He is and remember ALL the ways in which He blesses us daily. A good practice is to write down one praise of gratitude each day. This forces us to slow down enough to realize we have so many blessings in our lives.
Let all that I am praise the Lord ; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name.
Psalm 103:1
Pursuing a Relationship
Believing in God and reading the Bible do not equate to having a relationship with Him…at least not a very meaningful one. Anyone can do those things, whether they are Christ-followers or not. Having a deep and intimate relationship with God means opening your heart to His. To know Him more fully, to love Him deeper, to desire to imitate His ways, and to acknowledge His presence with you in each moment.
Oh, that we might know the Lord ! Let us press on to know him. He will respond to us as surely as the arrival of dawn or the coming of rains in early spring.”
Hosea 6:3
A relationship with God isn’t about anything we’ve done or ever could do. We don’t earn a relationship with Him; we simply accept Him and the relationship He freely offers us. Our relationship with God should be based solely on what He’s done for us, and our affection for Him because of that. We lean into Him because He leaned completely into death for our sakes and offers us new life in His Spirt. That and that alone should draw us deeper into relationship with Him.
So now we can rejoice in our wonderful new relationship with God because our Lord Jesus Christ has made us friends of God.
Romans 5:11
Pursuing Him
By pursuing a life of godly wisdom, gratitude to the Lord, and a deep and meaningful relationship with Him, we are choosing to pursue a life centered on Him. That is my goal not just for this year, but every year after that. We aren’t called as believers to sit on the sidelines and keep hidden the sacrificial love of Jesus. No, we are called to a higher purpose of loving and serving Him beyond anything else in this world. Our pursuit of Him reflects our thankful hearts that a mighty and powerful God would humble Himself to love us and pursue us so perfectly.
Surely your goodness and unfailing love will pursue me all the days of my life, and I will live in the house of the Lord forever.
Psalm 23:6