Time To Engage: "Following Hard After God”

Yes, we’re saved as the Scripture clearly teaches that “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Acts 2:21 NIV) But there’s no real hunger or thirst for God, His kingdom, or His righteousness. We’re not like that deer desperate for water; instead, we’re satisfied and content with so very little, spiritually speaking. 

Part of the reason may be because people forget that God is a Person, and they forget that a personal relationship needs to be cultivated with God. 

Like any relationship, full knowledge and a close intimate relationship can never be achieved through brief encounters. Such a relationship can only be achieved when both a long and loving interaction takes place. 

Therefore, having such a relationship with God takes more than brief encounters on Sunday mornings. Also, please understand that religion can never substitute for this relationship. Such a relationship can only be achieved through the longing response of created being, that is, you and me, for our Creator. Jesus said no less in His prayer to the Father. 

Jesus prayed, “And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” (John 17:3 NKJV)

God greatly desires this loving relationship, but it can never be achieved through form religion that relies on mechanical responses. Instead, it can only be achieved through a personal intimate relationship with God that is communicated to us through God’s Word, the Bible, and through times of intimate communication, or prayer. 

This is how the Lord made us in the beginning. We were made in the image and likeness of God (Genesis 1:26), and because of this we have within us the capacity to know Him. But because of our sins, which we have inherited, we lack the power or the ability to do so. 

But the moment the Holy Spirit quickens us, and we become born again, we sense this new relationship with God and our souls leap for joy, because we are sons and daughters of the Most High God, where we now call Him Abba, or Daddy (Galatians 4:6).

But this is only the beginning. Because with this wonderful new relationship we have with God we can move forward into this glorious pursuit of His presence and we can move further into this new relationship. 

We need to pursue hard after God. Over 900 years ago, St. Bernard of Clairvaux wrote, 

We taste Thee, O thou Living Bread, 

And long to feast upon Thee still: 

We Drink of Thee, the Fountainhead 

And thirst our souls from Thee to fill. 

We see this love and longing in the lives of those godly men and women of the Bible and of our church forefathers like St. Bernard of Clairvaux. These men and women mourned for Him, prayed, wrestled, and sought Him day and night, in season and out with all their hearts, and once finding Him, they sought Him even more. 

Consider Moses whose knowledge of God spurred Him forward to knowing God to even a greater degree. He cried out, “If it is true that you look favorably on me, let me know your ways so I may understand you more fully and continue to enjoy your favor.” (Exodus 33:13 NLT)