The Pursuit

Written by Brenda Franklin Strout

The word Pursuit has a couple of definitions but for the sake of this conversation, let’s lean into it’s primary definition: The action of following or pursuing someone or something. 

The action of following…Amen. 

I call myself a Follower of Jesus Christ, a Christ-Follower and for many who identify in the same manner, we may get visions of the 12 Disciples and the way in which they and many others followed Jesus in the latter years and the recorded heart of His ministry.  They lived, traveled, listened, loved, and pursued a life that required obedience to the words and teaching of Jesus in the three years that they walked with Him. Each one of them taking in the history making moments not knowing how long it would last or what more would be required of them.  Later after the crucifixion, resurrection and ascension of Jesus, we see the Disciples become Apostles and disperse throughout the world to proclaim the gospel, the Word Of God, to people that would become true fishers of men, passionate in the pursuit that none should perish and all may know Him. One of those disciples, the Apostle Peter, wrote to the elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia in roughly 60 A.D. and recorded in 1 Peter 1:22-25: Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, Since you have been born again,  not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for “All flesh is like grass and all its glory like the flower of grass. the grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever. And this word is the good news that was preached to you.

…through the living and abiding word of God.  One of the ways in which we pursue God is through the reading and studying of the Bible, His living and abiding word. It is a Word that Peter writes “remains forever” and is the good news. Who doesn’t want good news forever?!  I know I do!! The scriptures are critical to our pursuit of truth, of direction, correction and for equipping. In 2 Timothy 3:16, All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.

So if we are following the thoughts and words of the apostles, in this case Peter and Paul, we know that we pursue God by relying and being obedient to His Word. And we can take from the above scriptures that we do this because the Word is, 

God breathed for:

• Teaching

• Reproof

• Correction

• Training

That we may be complete and equipped for every good work. That when we have purified our souls to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, we can love one another earnestly from that pure heart.

We love better when we are pursuing God through the Word of God.  

In Mathew 22: 36-39, Jesus is asked by a lawyer of the Pharisees “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 

As followers of Jesus, we show our pursuit and the fruit of it by abiding in the Word, loving God with all our hearts and with all our souls and with all our minds and loving our neighbor as ourselves.  

Keep your eyes on Jesus, my friends. Abide in His Word. And LOVE those around you. Not only are these keys to the pursuit but they are also the key gifts of an abundant life.