1 Timothy 6:11-12 But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of faith….
Have you ever seen a dog in pursuit of a cat, especially if it comes in its own garden? Watch out cat! It gives us a picture of how God wants us to pursue the things of God. It’s not a half hearted approach He wants, but an all out, ‘I’m going after it, I’m going to get it’ thinking we need.
We can pursue all sorts of things but here Paul lists the things God wants us to pursue wholeheartedly.
First of all, he says to pursue righteousness, but thankfully it’s not our own righteousness where we have to ‘do’ stuff to get it. Jesus has freely given us His righteousness and when we receive it, then we’ll be able to behave righteously. It’s good to declare everyday ‘I am the righteousness of God in Christ’ even when we blow it. Just because we did something wrong we didn’t lose our righteousness. It is a gift of God and He wont take it back!
Pursue godliness. If we need a picture of godliness we only need to look at the life of Jesus and how He acted and reacted to all kinds of situations with love and faith. It ties in with endurance and gentleness as well because Jesus endured to the Cross and was so gentle with people. He never retaliated when treated cruelly or when He was betrayed. We can look to Jesus to know how to be godly.😊
When we’re tempted to be unloving and faithless let’s decide instead to pursue faith and love. Scripture tells us we’ve been given the measure of faith (Romans 12:3) so we can exercise it, and to love one another with the love God has already put in our hearts. (Romans 5:5)
Sometimes we just need a gentle reminder to be like that dog and chase after them again. If we need a refresher course then let’s ask the Lord for it and He will surely help us by the power of His Holy Spirit inside us. Let’s pursue the right things.😊
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