Passionate Pursuit and Longing Love

Sometimes I forget. I live my life as though I am not loved and accepted and chosen by THE God.

 At camp this past summer, on the top of Laurel Ridge, while sitting in a circle with my very closest friends, I laid down and looked up at the stars. And then I couldn't stop looking at the stars because it was so incredibly breathtaking. Gazing at the thousands of stars made me really wonder why God wants an intimate relationship with me. In Jeremiah 31:3, the Bible reads, "I have loved you with an everlasting love; I have drawn you with a loving kindness."

 I think what I find so fascinating about this love is that it is unconditional.

 "Unconditional: without conditions or limitations; absolute."

WITHOUT conditions. If you put it into human love, think about it this way. "I will love you but you can't cheat on me with someone else." "I'll love you as long as you love me." "I'll love you if you do this for me, its gotta be a mutual thing, not just one-sided."

Well, if you think about the way that WE love God, it's almost %100 of the time one-sided. And yet, all those examples just mentioned don't even matter in the eyes of God. It's unbelievable isn't it?

God's love is not a respecter of persons; it does not favor some above others. 

It's agape love.
 "Agape is unique in that it is more than feelings. It is more than an internal concern for the well-being of another; it is the externalization of that concern into action. God's love is active. He loved sinful mankind so much that He “gave” His only begotten Son"
~Allan Turner

God loves us, expecting to get something back, but knowing He won't, and He STILL loves us. Makes you feel bad doesn't it? It shouldn't just make you feel bad though, it should tear your heart apart to think that you and I continually all the time hurt God. We turn our eyes off Him, and He still pursues us. But that's what makes Him so beautiful.

Now think about what the world would be like if everyone longingly loved and passionately pursued every single person we came into contact with putting agape love into action? But, everyone doesn't know that THAT is their instruction. To love and serve and pursue the lost. This is when Christians need to stand up for their faith, put it into action, and passionately pursue the lost, so that the newly found can pursue the lost, etc until Jesus comes. Isn't it a beautiful picture? 

How would I make a difference if i pursued one or two people? It's just two people. This is what we start to think. This is what ALL Christians think. Oh, they'll take care of that, I don't have to worry about anything. However, we forget one important thing. God commands us to do this. To passionately pursue the lost. To love them with the same love that Christ loves us with! 1 Peter 4:8 says that above all, we should DEEPLY love each other. Here's my challenge: Take time in the Word to realize just how much God loves you. Take time to realize how you would want everyone to experience this type of love. 

And give it to them. Agape love, its freewill. Its a choice.

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