The Pursuit

"God will go to great lengths to pursue His lost children, " my friend Deb told me on the phone. "He is not pursuing you because He already has your heart. But he will use you to get to others who do not know that their salvation lies within His Son, Christ Jesus."

Somehow, those were not the comforting words I had hoped for. I was having a little pity party over the fact that I had heard about a divine healing of lung cancer that had happened in Conway, SC. A woman had driven 12 hours from Florida to Conway and sat for 12 more hours during a conference, participated in praise and worship and congregational prayers of healing
and at the end of the weekend, guess what? God had performed a miracle in her body. That very week her scans showed only one small, necrotic (dead) lesion left in one lung. Her doctor told her that she had gone from advanced stages of lung cancer to none. Holy moley! I heard a recording of her voice mail she had left a member of my church who had sat beside her. It was electrifying. What a testimony she will have; what glory she can bring to God!

At first, I was so excited about this news. God had not forgotten those of us who fight this awful disease on a daily basis. Healing of cancer is something that everyone tends to have skepticism about and here it was, documented in the next state over. WOW. Except I didn't feel "wow" for long. I began to feel discouraged, doubtful and resentful. I was still in the midst of a terrible war, suffering daily from various side effects of treatment and I was suddenly questioning God's choices. Why??? Because the woman who received healing was Jewish. Not someone like me, who is faithful, prayerful and a devout believer in the power of the Lord Jesus, but a member of the group who rejected my Lord and crucified Him on a cross. Ouch. Why her...why not me when so many faithful pray for me everyday, constantly and fervently. I took too long of a look inside myself and my circumstances and came out down, depressed and disappointed.

And so, this lead to a phone conversation with my friend, who in her always-wise and gentle way reminded my that God is most concerned about our eternal life, not our human time on earth.
He is constantly pursuing His children to make sure that they come home at the end of their physical existence. He will go to the ends of the earth to find those He loves and use whatever method necessary to give them their place in paradise. On the one hand, He will heal a Jewish woman and then on the other, use a devout woman's continual battle with cancer to convict and convince the stray sheep that their salvation lies with Him.

God loves us SO much, he gave his one and only Son for us. So, if you know me, if we cross paths and you do not know Jesus as your Savior, ponder this: Are you the person that God is pursuing through my living witness?? Are you the lost one that Jesus wants to touch through
my battles? If you think you are, then praise God and Hallelujah! You could receive the greatest gift of you entire life if you listen to those whispers of the Lord and accept what He has done for you. Even though there are times when I would rather not be the method of the pursuit, I am so blessed by the very idea that God would use me to get to you. He thinks that you are so worth the effort and, my beloved lost little lamb, so do I.

"How great is the love Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are..." 1 John 3:1