Magnificent Obsession: Pursuing the Love That Pursues Us

God is love. Three little words. Beautiful to the ears but perplexing to the understanding. The mindset of sinful man is that God is inscrutable, and to suggest that we can know him, not just academically but intimately, is for many, nothing short of blasphemy. For the Jews, YHWH is a name not even to be spoken. For other great world religions, God is transcendent, unknowable, and only to be appeased with offerings, rituals, oblations, and works of piety. The pursuit of a personal relationship with the God of the universe is presumption of the highest order and to claim to know God is arrogance worthy of death. Jesus referred to God as his Father, signifying a relationship between him and God based on intimacy, and it cost him his life.

Yet, the thread woven through the pages of the sacred writ is that the God who made the world is a God who loves his world and who wants to be intimately involved with his creation to the end that they might fulfill the divine will and intent.

In these messages we see God as an obsessed lover who thinks great and lofty thoughts of us and who pursues us even when all others have given up hope for us. I pray that the Spirit of God will convince you of his great love for you and that such a revelation will stir you to breathless pursuit of his presence.