I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
.-Revelation 22:13       

In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.–Luke 15:10

Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.-Luke 12:7

We love because He first loved us. 1 John 4:19

 

The Alpha and Omega

He is the alpha and omega,
The beginning and the end.
We are created in His image,
Sustained by the love He sends.
His pain echoed through the ages
When He learned of man’s first sin.
That same heart is joyfully mended,
With each soul reborn to Him.

He calls us to perfection
That He knows we cannot display.
But because we, nonetheless, keep striving
He gave this promise He will not betray.
That He will love us with great passion,
He will count our every hair.
He will keep us always in his sight,
He will shoulder every care.

He will root for our happiness,
He will support our every dream.
He will subsume every nightmare,
And He will quiet every scream.
And in return all He asks for
Is a relationship with each child;
One of warmth and intimacy,
Beyond just prayers routinely filed.

He respects the free will He’s given us,
He will never force us to comply.
Nor will He give up on us
Or His dream to unify.
So, we must prepare ourselves
To be followed, pursued, harassed,
For, God will always chase us
With great passion unsurpassed.
©Linda Troxell 05/12/2016

 

I bet you have been told a thousand times in a thousand ways about your responsibility, even your obligation, to seek and pursue God. We are to seek to understand God’s will for us, we are to seek to behave in a manner that pleases God, we are to always seek to strengthen our relationship with God. But how many of you have ever heard, read or been told that God pursues you? How many of you have ever considered that God desperately wants a relationship with you?  Well, I am here to tell you that God seeks a relationship with you as a smitten lover would seek a relationship with his beloved. He not only seeks a relationship with you, He created you so He could seek a relationship with you. God is not a distant cold king father who sits on His throne and waits for us to seek him out and pay tribute. No, God is a loving and involved Father, the Bible tells us He is Abba a name akin to daddy or papa. This is a loving, emotionally involved father who longs for a relationship with His children.

Any of you who are parents knows that a parent longs for a deep relationship with their children much more than the children do with their parents. You know that it is the parent who pursues the relationship, not the child. Romans 8:15-16 tell us that those of us led by the Spirit are the children of God and that the Spirit does not make us slaves who live in fear but it brings our adoption to sonship. (The Greek word for adoption to sonship is a term referring to the full legal standing of an adopted male heir in Roman culture.)

Now, don’t misunderstand me, I am not telling you that you should give up your pursuit of God,  or your pursuit to deepen your relationship with him, to just sit back and allow Him to pursue you. No, what I am telling you is that in those times when you are feeling frustrated because it seems that your pursuit is not really going anywhere, those times when you feel worn out, it might help to remember that you are not the only one responsible for this relationship. You are not the only one working for this relationship. God is working just as hard at it as you are; perhaps harder. It’s very important to know this, because in our pursuit of a relationship with God, just as in earthly relationships, when we feel like the relationship is one-sided, that we are the only one trying, it can become a burden to keep trying. Even more than that, when we feel that we are the only one pursuing our relationship with God, it can easily turn into a pursuit motivated by guilt or fear of punishment rather than love and longing. Well, take heart, you are not the only one trying; God is trying too. And don’t forget what the Bible tells us in 1 John 4:19: We love because He first loved us.

Maybe you’re thinking, “Well, that’s a nice story, but where’s the proof?”  Well, let’s look to see what the Bible has to say. The Bible portrays God as a seeker. John 4:23 reveals: … for such people the Father seeks to be his worshippers; Psalms 14:2 shows God looking down from heaven upon sons of men to see if there are any who understand Him. And Jesus tells us He has come to seek and save that which was lost. (Luke 19:10) If we pay attention, the Bible shows us that God has been seeking and pursuing us since He first created us. In the beginning, He seeks communion with Adam and Eve; In Genesis 3:8-9 God walks through the garden and calls to Adam and Eve, “where are you.” God knew where Adam and Eve were, He’s God, and He’s omniscient. But he calls to them because He is seeking a relationship with His greatest creation. Job knew that God wanted a relationship with him, why else would he remind God that he won’t be there for God if God lets him die: “…For now, I will lie down in the dust; you will seek me, but I will not be.” Job 7:21. If nothing else in the Bible convinces you that God is pursuing you, the parable of the prodigal son has got to do it. We all know the story, the son takes his inheritance and goes off to live the good life of sin. When it doesn’t work out, he comes back to his Abba. He is contrite and well prepared to live in the barn and be a servant, he just wants to come back home. Now, in this story, the son has just come from days and day of living in a pig sty; he is filthy and he smells terrible. His father, who has been watching out for him day in and day out, when he sees him, runs to him. Now in the Hebrew culture for older men to run is unseemly, even shameful. But the father doesn’t care, he is so happy to see his child that he runs to him, shame be damned, and embraces him in all of his smelly filth. And far from rebuking him, or shunning him, he throws the party of all parties to celebrate the return of his beloved son. In this parable, we are the son and God is the father. When we stray God watches and waits for us to come close so He can run to us and embrace us, no matter how sinful we are, no matter how dirty and smelly. Because, like the son in the parable, we are God’s beloved children and He is so happy when He can have a relationship with us.

Throughout the Bible, God shows us that we are incredibly important to Him. In Isaiah 43:4 He tells us: …you are precious and honored in my sight, and because I love you, I will give people in exchange for you. We know from Psalm 139:1-3 He has searched us, knows every part of us, what we are thinking and what we will say before we say it; He is intimately acquainted with us. In Job 7:17 Satan asks God why he magnifies us and why He is so concerned with us. God says that we are His beloved. He says he desires us in Song of Songs 7:10, in Psalm 8:14 He is mindful of us these are all things that are true only about those one loves dearly.  And if there is still any question that God pursues us, in Ezekiel 34:11 He is clear that He actively seeks us rather than waiting for us to find Him: For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: “I myself will search for my sheep and look after them.” Verse 15 goes on to say: “I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down”, declares the Sovereign Lord. And Jesus longed for us to be close to Him forever. We know because He expressed this in Gethsemane when He cried out to His father: “Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, be with me where I am…”–John 17:24. However, in addition to wanting to care for us as our Abba also has a great passion for us.  He makes this clear throughout the Bible in t32he many ways in which He compares his desire for us to that of a bridegroom for his bride. (Ezekiel 16:8-14; Matthew 9:15; 22:1-14; 25:1-13; John 3:29; 2 Corinthians11:2, and more.)

It may always be a mystery why this all-powerful deity is infinitely interested and eternally moved by the insignificant, capricious and fickle human heart; and not just one human heart, but the billions upon billions of hearts across the world, for they are all his beloved children and He is their Abba. Still more mysterious is how the Sovereign God, the Alpha and the Omega, ruler of the world, who has the power to raise the dead and part the sea, chose something like the eternally flawed, utterly powerless and hopelessly broken human to be his heart’s desire. But then we are not, according to the Bible, only depraved and sinful, but also dark and lovely, Song of Songs 1:5; sinful and gone astray, Romans 3:23, and a pearl of great price. Matthew 13:45. Clearly, God is not at all unaware of our sinful and fallen nature, but just as clearly, He views us as redeemed.

I hope that you have begun to understand the love that the God of the universe has for us. Not just that His love is unconditional, but that He goes to great lengths to pursue us. I hope you can feel in your heart and see in your mind’s eye the depth and breadth of God’s love for his children. That in His eyes we are precious and delightful. When you read the terms of endearment with which God refers to us in the Bible, it does not bring to mind a distant cold king father sitting on his throne passing judgment. Rather, terms such as treasured son or daughter, the apple of his eye, a crown of splendor, His friend, and much, much more, speak of a warm, engaged, sometimes frustrated but always delighted Abba, who is totally smitten with His children.  I urge you to, from this point forward, read the Bible with this new thesis in mind, that God is not just waiting for us, He is chasing us. I think you will be surprised how differently you look at some of the stories and verses with that idea in mind.

 

Points for Prayer and Pondering

1. Most people, no matter how Christian they consider themselves, have a difficult time accepting that God loves them so much He pursues them. Was anything that you read here difficult for you to believe? If so, what? If not why not?  Did anything that you read shock you? Why, or why not?

2. Have you ever pursued your relationship with God out of a sense of duty or out of fear of punishment? If so, how did it affect your feelings about God? Do you think it interfered with your relationship with Him?

3.  How do you feel about the concept of God pursuing you in order to have a relationship with you?