What does the pursuit of God look like in your life? Jess Connolly reminds us that a holy pursuit of God will never be laced with striving for favor.
“When I first met Jesus I really wanted to know more about Him. I wanted to know more about everything in the Kingdom. Right after I met Him, it seemed like my pursuit of Him was genuinely pure. I just wanted more of Him.”
As time went by, Jess noticed that her pursuit of God started to shift. Lies about what it means to pursue God had infiltrated her thinking.
“There was still yearning and running, but it tended to be less about Him. It was more about trying to seem like I knew a lot about God or really even to earn the approval of others.”
“Somewhere in there I was believing that to be close to God, I had to do a lot of things. I had to read as much of the Bible as possible. I had to spend a good amount of time in prayer. I had to spend a good amount of time serving.”
Like many of us, Jess lost sight of the true freedom found in the Gospel. Her pursuit of God became less about being a woman of God and cultivating a relationship with Him and more about striving to complete a list of have to dos.
“My husband sat me down and said, ‘I want you to understand what it really means to receive the Gospel. I want you to know that you can’t work for God’s approval, you work from God’s approval. He didn’t just make you okay at salvation, He completely changed you.’”
For Jess, this was a life-changing moment.
“I realized I don’t have to work so hard to be close to Him, He has already come over to be with me. He has already done the graceful thing of leaning in towards me.”
We do have to do our part to pursue God and seek refuge in Him. However, we can’t let our pursuit of God turn into striving to earn God’s favor or love. He has already poured out his love onto us.
Jess Connolly is a gal who wants to leave her world more in awe of God than she found it. She’s the founder of All Good Things Collective, the cofounder of The Influence Network, and she is passionate about using her words to point women to Jesus through writing and speaking. She is the author of .
Key Scripture: Psalm 126
Featured Songs: Lavish – Big Daddy Weave and Francesca Battistelli; There’s a Hope – Hollyn and Chris McClarney; Power to Redeem – Lauren Daigle
The pursuit of God
