Pursuing Love

On Tuesday mornings we have staff prayer in our pastor's office. We pray about needs in the church, upcoming events, and basically whatever we feel led to pray about. Last week, just before we finished, Dave (my pastor) prayed for my husband and me. I was a little surprised, because we hadn't prayed for any other staff members. But hey, I'll take it, right? Later that night I had a long talk with a dear friend, who asked to pray for me before we parted. Two in one day! Since I didn’t feel like there was anything in particular that I was going thru at the moment, I was beginning to get a little paranoid that God was preparing me for some kind of trial or something (why do we always expect the worst?).

So the next morning during my quiet time I was thinking about that, as well as the hymn “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” which some friends and I had been discussing recently. Especially the “prone to wander” part of the last verse. And I remembered a song by Chris Rice that has a chorus that says, “How can I be so prone to wander, so prone to leave You, so prone to die? And how can You be so full of mercy – You race to meet me and bring me back to life.” And I realized that it wasn’t that God was equipping me for some coming trial, but that my heart toward Him had been lukewarm, and He was pursuing me to bring me back to Him. Oh how He loves us! I was sitting there during my quiet time just amazed at how personally and individually the God of all creation woos us, drawing us close to Him. Even though I was not rebellious, or wayward, or bitter, my heart had gradually turned from Him, and He so desired intimacy with me that He used other people to get my attention.

I flipped thru my CD’s, looking for that Chris Rice CD, but could only find one with hymns on it. Fortunately, “Come Thou Fount” was on it, so I decided to listen to that instead. After that song was over, I just left the CD on. I couldn’t believe it when the next song was “O Love That Will Not Let Me Go.” I’m not even that familiar with that hymn, so I looked it up in a hymnal. Isn’t that just like God to MAKE SURE I got the message of His pursuing love? If He would allow His own Son to be crucified in order to reconcile us to Himself, would He not make sure we knew how much He loves us? If we have ears to hear, eyes to see and a heart that truly desires Him over all else, I believe He WILL speak to us. Every believer ought to have an inner "photo album," or maybe scrapbook is a better term, for the mementos God has given us along our earthly journey to remind us how abundantly, how deeply, how personally He loves each one of us.

Maybe that's why I call this blog, Postcards from the Journey, to share some of my mementos of God's faithfulness, wisdom and love!