My soul follows hard after you, your right hand upholds me. Psalm 63:8
Reflection
The act of following hard after God is one that can be accomplished, and when it is accomplished it brings with it so many great things, but we must first realize our need for God and His love for us. Christianity teaches very clearly that in order for a man or woman to have a desire to pursue God, God must have first pursued them. Tozer said it like this; “We pursue God because, and only because, He has first put an urge within us that spurs us to pursuit.” This is clearly seen in John 6:44, where Jesus says; “no one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him.” As the Psalmist said “your right hand upholds me”we get an idea that as we follow after God we are being held in His hands, this whole idea is very humbling and a great relief from legalism, and religion. Where as in religion and legalism say try harder do better and maybe your good will out weigh your bad in the end, Christianity says no one is worthy nor can anyone
attain salvation, but it is a free gift of grace made manifest in Jesus Christ. Sometimes this idea that salvation is a free gift can lead to apathy and the feeling that; it doesn’t matter how I live my life now that I have “fire insurance” but the Bible also clearly teaches that we must choose to answer His calling, we must as Christians respond to His pursuit with our decision to in turn pursue Him. The Psalmist writes in Psalm 42, “As the deer longs for streams of water, so I long for you, O God. I thirst for God, the living God.” There is a notion that has become more and more accepted in the Church today; is that a person can come to Christ be converted and then go on living their life with no change in moral character. This idea is utterly false and should be challenged by us as believers in the One True God, the God that radically changes lives. So as God gives His grace to you, do not simply accept it as true; also seek to live as tho it is true and allow Him to change and bless your life by being obedient to His call and FOLLOWING HARD AFTER HIM.
For His glory and our joy,
Eden
Eden Fine 