Just Because

Ps.63:^2-4 [MSG] “So here I am in the place of worship, eyes open, drinking in your strength and glory. In your generous love, I am really living at last! My lips brim praises like fountains. I bless you every time I take a breath; My arms wave like banners of praise to you.”

When your pursuit is after the person, the passion is effortless. But when you pursue the passion, it becomes elusive and after a while, tasteless because it is all about the passion. When we gather to worship, it is because we want to cultivate our affection for God. We gather to worship because we want to cultivate our love, and our enjoyment of God. What will make one Christian go farther than the other is the enjoyment of God. What will make one Christian’s walk seem effortless and another’s a struggle, is simple -one is enjoying God and the other is not, so his walk with God becomes laborious.

When your heart is after the person and not the passion, you desire the person and you want to have a relationship with the person. You want to talk to the person, be with the person, just to sit down with the person. The passionate heart cannot get enough of the person and the reward is passion. For instance, I am playing a game into the early hours of the morning. And my wife comes downstairs, she is not coming to play the game with me but rather to hang out with me. She may just lay down beside me, just enjoying my company – nothing else.

Back when I first started pastoring, my average closing time was 1am. My wife would close from work, get home, bring food and a mat to my office. So, I am working and she is sleeping under my table. Why would she do all this? It is because she just wants to hang out with me. Ladies, stop fighting your husband, pursue him and watch things turn around. Guess what, when my wife brings her mat and sets it down under my table, it sends a mental note to me. I know I have to close early.

The truth is that it is your enjoyment of God that will sustain your obedience to God. The obedience becomes effortless, the Commandments become easy and the yoke becomes light, because you enjoy God.

Prayer: God—You’re my God! I can’t get enough of You! I have worked up such hunger and thirst for God... Give me more of You –Jesus, in Jesus Name. Amen! [Ps.63:1-2]