Catch Me if You Can!

When we lose something important to us what do we do? We spend hours, days, sometimes even years looking for it until we find it again.....I imagine that God does the same thing when He loses one of us to sin, doubt, worries, or wordly treasures. He searches and searches until He finds us, then He chases after us until He eventually catches us.

Take a look at a few of the notes I jotted down from our sermon last week called "Running from God" ~ 

• "When we feel the weight of our sin, that's God trying to get our attention" 
• "With God, being 'caught' doesn't always mean punishment - Sometimes it leads to salvation" 
• "Sometimes we find ourselves running from God's will for our lives" 
• "Why would God spare you? Why would He forgive you of your sins? It's because He's not done with you yet" 

Do any of those quotes touch a nerve with you or seem familiar? They did for me.....

Growing up I spent a lot of time making bad choices and justifying them with various excuses. When someone wanted to talk to me about Jesus I diverted the conversation to something else. I avoided church and any activity that might cause me to face my sins and make changes. Quite frankly, I knew that admitting my sins and having a relationship with Jesus meant that I would have to change my life and stop doing everything that I wanted to do. The funny thing is, all the things I wanted to do made me happy at the time, but the happiness wore off quickly and I found myself spinning around in this circle of 'Why me?' and 'I wish things were different!' Good thing God never stopped chasing after me  all those years....

The funny thing about someone running after you is that if you're both running at the same pace, you eventually need to slow down or stop in order for them to catch you. What do YOU need to slow down or stop doing in order for God to catch up with you? Is there a sin in your life that keeps you constantly running from God? Is there a doubt or worry that you let consume you and keep you from being close to Him? Or is it the things of this world - money, possessions, relationships, your job, etc. that keep you running as fast as you can? 

Whatever keeps you on the run, I encourage you to SLOW DOWN and listen to what God is saying to you...Let Him catch you and your life will never be the same again, I promise. 

"In his heart a man plans his course, but the LORD determines his steps" ~ Proverbs 16:9