Pursuit

"Many are the pursuits of mankind's hearts, but there is only one pursuit that will genuinely satisfy. All other pursuits only lead to more hunger. The heart of mankind is insatiable with regard to all other pursuits but one."

This is what the Holy Spirit laid on my heart after my prayer time today. One of the things that the Spirit is currently burdening my heart with, is how we so easily deceive ourselves. There are many in the church who have convinced themselves that they are pursuing God, but what they are really pursuing is success, recognition, acknowledgement, their own ambition, validation, a comfortable version of Jesus, wealth, prosperity, power, control over their circumstances, and many other things that are the true treasure of their heart, rather than Jesus Christ the person, Who calls us to die to ourselves and stand naked before Him.  Too many of us want to bring our own clothing with us, our good deeds, our noble pursuits, our successful endeavors we have accomplished in Jesus' name.  But what we don't realize is that our own clothing is like filthy rags before the throne of God (Zechariah 3:4,5). Our white garments must come from the Lord, and the Lord alone (Rev 3:18), because it is only His righteousness that is truly worthy. Jesus says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit.." (Matt 5:3) because they are those who realize and understand their spiritual poverty without the benevolence of God.

Many of us are willing to accept Jesus-plus-the-thing-we-want-Him-to-do-for-us. We are willing to accept Jesus, as long as it's on our terms. But what we really need to understand is that we must be willing to accept Jesus alone, on His terms alone. This is because anything we add to our pursuit of Him will eventually get in the way. Jesus, alone, is worth forsaking every other pursuit of our heart. That is why He said, "The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field" (Matt 13:44). We pursue many things to satisfy our hearts, and many in the church pursue much in Jesus' name, but all He truly wants us to pursue is Him.

What is the treasure of your heart? What are you pursuing? Are you clothed in your own garments or His? Ask God to examine your heart.  But many of us may first have to pray for the courage to face what God finds.  God doesn't need us to build bigger churches, grow larger ministries, accumulate wealth and influence, fix our political system, or any other thing we convince ourselves that God has "called" us to do.  Many of the things we do in Jesus' name are things He never asked us to do in the first place.  He simply said, "Follow Me."  And when we walk alongside of Jesus as He walked, we find that His path led not to the satisfaction of His own ambition or comfort, but to a rough-hewn cross.  Sometimes God just wants us to sit still long enough to let Him do His work in us.

As they traveled along, Jesus entered a village where a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. She had a sister named Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet, listening to His teaching. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations to be made. She came to Jesus and said, "Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord replied, "you are worried and upset about many things. But only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part and it shall not be taken away from her." (Luke 10:38-42)