I have a slogan for lots of things. I like one liners. They are proverbial sentences that bring wisdom and guidance to my spiritual journey. I have a one line motto that I have developed that has guided my pursuit of God. It has served me well over the years. This is my motto for pursuing God:
Ever grateful, never satisfied, relentlessly pursuing God for more of Himself, never taking offense.
Over the next few blogs I will unpack how this sentence has guided my pursuit of God by looking at each segment.
Ever grateful. There are two times to be grateful in life: when you feel like it and when you don’t. And the time when you most need to be thankful is when you least feel like it. The reason I put this line in my motto was because I found myself being ungrateful too often. I am a passionate person. Passionate people expect more from life and from God. The more expectations you have the more disappointed you will be in life. Disappointment easily leads you to grumbling and complaining. Paul talks about warnings from Israel’s history in 1 Corinthians 10. He talks about the big sins of Israel’s history. Things like – idolatry, sexual immorality and testing God. Then he adds grumbling. Do you remember when you were a kid and they had you do those tests where they showed you four pictures and you had to circle the one that didn’t belong: tree, plant, flower, car. One obviously didn’t fit. When I look at this list – grumbling doesn’t seem to fit. The others seem like really big sins, but everybody grumbles and complains a little. Why is grumbling on this list?
Grumbling is an indictment against the goodness of God. Grumbling is an act of unbelief. When the children of Israel grumble against God about not having water or food or the comforts of Egypt, they do not believe that God will provide for them, or take care of them. Doubt is not a sin. Doubt is weak faith that needs to be developed. But unbelief is a sin. Grumbling is unbelief. This is why I had to choose to be grateful. Gratitude reminds me of the goodness of God and strengthens my faith. Gratitude keeps me from grumbling and helps me to persist. Gratitude won’t change your circumstances but it will change your perspective.
Often I went away to the monastery to pursue God. I would spend two days at the monastery seeking God for more of Himself. If I came with high expectation of encountering God, but nothing much happened I could easily be disappointed. Disappointment can lead to grumbling. Grumbling can lead to a hardened heart. A hardened heart prevents me from giving God access. So I realized that I had to pursue God with great expectation, but be grateful no matter what I received. I was grateful when God answered me with what I expected and I chose to be grateful when He didn’t. I pursued God for the next great encounter with Him, and I chose to be grateful when all I got was a gentle whisper or a sense of peace. I pursued God for the next filling of the Holy Spirit; I hoped and longed that God would come, and I was grateful when He did. But I also had to choose to be grateful when all I received was a gentle assurance of his presence. I hoped He would come like a mighty rushing wind, but I was grateful when He came like a gentle dove. I had to choose gratitude. My lack of gratitude hindered my pursuit. Gratitude re-set the goodness of God in my inner being. Gratitude re-established faith in my soul.
Ever grateful. I had to realize that I wasn’t pursuing God so that He would give me what I wanted. I was pursuing God because He is worth it. He is worthy; He is worth our pursuit. He is worth our full attention, but we mostly give Him our distracted selves.
I went to the monastery one time with my friends Tommy and Dave. We ended our day alone with God but praying together before bedtime. After our prayer time, Tommy asked me, “What are you going to do now?” I said, “I am actually going to stay up all night and pray.” He said, “Really? Can I join you?” He was a youth pastor. Only a youth pastor would think this was fun! I said, “Sure. It isn’t a lock in or anything. I just feel led by God to stay up all night and pray.” He wanted to join. Dave reluctantly chimes in, “Well, I’ll stay up too.” I smelled the hesitation: “You don’t need to.” He said, “No. No. it’s ok.” So we stayed up all night and prayed, then at 6am, I stood up and said, “I am going to shower now.” Dave said, “Wait! Why did we do this? We stayed up all night and nothing happened. Why did we do this? We lost a night’s sleep for nothing!” I said, “Because He is worth it. Maybe next time He comes in power. Maybe He doesn’t. Be He is worth it either way.”
So, I pursue Him hoping for another great experience with God, but when it doesn’t come, I choose to be grateful because He is the God of the cross. He is worth it. He is worth our pursuit. He is worth our full attention. He is worth our sacrifice. He is worth our ever grateful response in the face of less than we hoped for. Ever grateful; never satisfied; relentlessly pursuing Him for more of Himself; never taking offense.
well said!
Thank you. God’s best to you.
Many thoughts for me to ponder in here Rob. I appreciate how you express your heart so transparently in words that define my own desire for God.
Thanks Lori. I appreciate your kind words. Blessings to you
This really is perfect. This captures the tension I feel in desiring Him and eagerly expecting Him, and yet not getting discouraged in the pursuit. There are times still when I find myself deceived by thinking I’m seeking Him and realizing I was seeking His blessings or His manifestations. He keeps changing my heart and showing me that He is enough. "He is worth it." Thanks, Rob.
Sonya, in Luke 11:13 Jesus says, “If you, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will my Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask.” Interesting tension. On the one hand, he says that the Spirit is a gift – the Father gives us. On the other hand, we are to pursue – ask, seek and knock. Pursuit is not earning. When we think that pursuit is earning, we take offense when God doesn’t give. But we pursue because He is worth it. We pursue. That’s our part. God’s part is to give the gift. We just receive. We are only responsible for our part – not God’s part. We pursue. We keep our hearts open to receive. And we wait. God gives when and how he wants. It isn’t earning. It’s receiving. Keep doing your part, Sonya. And receive. He is worth it! Blessings to you.
Thank you, Rob. You articulated exactly what it is like. I’ve pulled back at times when I sensed I was trying to "earn" something.This is encouraging. I will keep pursuing.
My dearest friend, Molly is at the Holy Spirit weekend this weekend. If you happen to meet her, please send my love and blessings to her. 🙂
The timing of this post is perfect. This is exactly what I needed to hear. As I was nearing the end, I started to cry. He IS completely worth the FULL pursuit. Thank you for reminding me to turn my grumbling into gratitude. My mind has been renewed and the posture I choose going forward this week: Ever grateful.
So great to experience your teaching again Rob via the blog. I resonated with the challenge of being passionate. I am the same way and have experienced disappointments. At times, I think there is a mix of pride built in, which at times, has me questioning, why am I driving so hard or expecting so much? As I process this with God, I am learning to develop an "upside mentality" and celebrating what did happen vs what did not.
Good approach, Bill. It isn’t easy. But gratitude goes a long ways. Gratitude doesn’t change our reality, but it surely changes our perspective. Blessings brother.