11 Mar Hot Pursuit by Joy Handley
“Hot Pursuit”
By Joy Handley
As a new mom of a baby girl and a 16 month old, my life is busy. There’s not a lot of down time in my day, so it’s easy for me to make that an excuse. One day, I was doing my quiet time (with a sleeping baby beside me and one on my lap), and a worship song came on that challenged me, Lead me to You. Forever I will pursue. You’ve won my heart. Jesus, You’re all that I want.
The word pursue struck my heart. I had to honestly ask myself if I was pursuing God? Have I made significant efforts toward Him? Or, have I just made this a checklist like any other part of my day?
To be honest, God was a checklist for me. I wasn’t pursuing Him like I should.
It’s so easy for people like you and me who are in church and can quote the Bible to grow stale because we’ve read the scripture before or heard the sermon twice.
Science teaches us that there is no such thing as no movement. Everything is either moving forward or backward; it’s growing or it’s dying.
If we’re not careful, we become stagnant and start going backwards instead of growing our relationship with God. I don’t want to know about something so much that I forget to know the Someone. I don’t want to read my Bible just to read it; I want to uncover a new layer of a God that is so vast, I will learn about Him for eternity. I want to be running after God, not doing my cute little Bible study checklist. I want my desires to line up with Him. I want to grow in Him and learn more about our beautiful Father.
God isn’t looking for good Christian girls that go to church; he’s looking for women who will pursue Him wholeheartedly.
For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout the earth so that He may show himself strong to those whose heart is completely His… 2 Chronicles 16:9.
I want to be God’s go-to girl that He can show Himself strong. I don’t want Him to have to go ask someone else to do the things He’s asked of me. I want Him to know that my desire is to be with Him and to do whatever He asks.
Whom have I in heaven but You? I desire You more than anything on earth. Psalm 73:25.
I want to live my life in hot pursuit of God. As women in ministry, let’s always make sure we are walking hand in hand with God, pursuing Him and His desires.