Your Daily Devotional for June 26, 2007

 

June 26,  2007

 

 

Pursuing Christ

by Dr. Paul Chappell

 

 

"Our fathers did eat manna in the desert; as it is written, He gave them bread from heaven to eat. Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven; but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world. Then said they unto him, Lord, evermore give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I said unto you, That ye also have seen me, and believe not."

 

John 6:31-36

 

 

As we saw yesterday, a true disciple of Christ will read His Word and will obey what God has commanded. It was easy for Christ to tell the true disciples from the ones who were only there "for show." Today, we see that a true disciple also pursues a relationship with Christ.

 

The word pursue has been defined as "to follow close upon; go with; attend." As Christians, we are to follow Christ closely and seek to stay close by Him as we live for Him. Christ desires for us to pursue a close relationship with Him, yet we can sometimes be sidetracked or pulled away by the pursuit of other things.

 

In the first few verses of John 6, Christ fed the five thousand, rescued the disciples from the stormy seas, and crossed onto the other side of the sea. In our verses today, we see that the crowd had followed Christ and were pursuing Him. But Christ rebuked these people because they were not seeking Him for the right reasons.

 

Christ says in John 6:26,  "Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled." These people were not pursuing Christ because He was God but because He provided them with food.

 

Many people today are pursuing Christ, not because He is the Son of God, but because He has the ability to meet their needs. We should not only seek God when we are in need, but we must continually seek Him through prayer and Bible-reading. As we seek Him and pursue a deeper relationship with Him, He will provide for our needs and will draw us closer to Him.

 

We must seek Christ, not only for the temporal but for the eternal as well. We must build a close relationship with Him and seek to know Him. We can only build this relationship as we are spending time with Him. We must not let the pursuit of other things drown out our pursuit of a relationship with God. We can sometimes be guilty of having more passion in pursuing the things of this world than in pursuing a relationship with God. We must not let other things replace our pursuit of God, but we must make time to grow and develop our relationships with Him.

 

Are you passionately pursuing a relationship with God? God desires for us to have a close walk with Him, but we must pursue a relationship with Him through Bible reading and prayer. Take time now to seek God. Pursue a close walk with Him by spending time with Him right now. Ask Him to draw you closer to Himself as you pursue a close walk with Him today.

 

 

 

 

Daily Bible Reading

Job 5-7 • Acts8:1-25

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