God Pursues Us and He Is Carrying These Two Gifts
They say when it rains it pours, and that’s how it felt yesterday morning. First, the coffee pot decided it was done brewing. Next, the Internet crashed, and the channel with the cartoons went pitch black. I sat by the window and reminded myself that God pursues us and offers his peace amid our frustrations.
In the meantime, it felt like trouble was pursuing me.
There are days when it feels like mishaps and misfortune are chasing us down.
Trouble chases us in small ways, such as dead batteries, viruses, and power outages that derail our days. It also comes in more serious ways: health crises, financial fallouts, and broken relationships.
God Pursues Us
Meanwhile, the Bible tells a different story.
It tells a different story in the very familiar words of one of the most-read Psalms:
Psalm 23:6 reads: “Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the LORD forever” (ESV).
I wonder how many times I’ve glossed over these words.
It strikes me as I concede to give up my battle with the Internet and find an old DVD for the kids – and this is a promise for you as well: In this very moment, God is chasing you down, and he carries gifts in his hands!
God Pursues Us With These Gifts
God pursues us every day of our lives, and he carries these two gifts: goodness and mercy.
Friend, don’t gloss over these words because they are familiar. Let’s dig deeper together today.
In the original language, the word for “pursue” is “radaph.” Radaph is more than just a pursuit. Radaph is translated as “chase.”
This truth is hard to fathom. The Maker of the Universe is literally chasing you today. He is chasing you, and he is holding two gifts in his hands. His gifts are goodness and mercy.
God Pursues Us Our Whole Lives
God has been chasing you with goodness and mercy all your life. Look back over the years, and you just might see it.
As I reflect on this, I recall chasing worldly success, comfort, and peace for many years. Sadly, they proved to be empty pursuits. All the while, God’s goodness and mercy pursued me. His goodness and mercy pursued me into my early twenties when I turned from old ways and decided to live for him.
God pursued me into my thirties and began to show me what it meant to set aside my agenda and trust him with my life.
His goodness and mercy continue to pursue me as I aim to follow him with my whole heart but stumble again and again.
I am a woman in need of ongoing help. I need a kind of deliverance that steps up to carry me when life gets hard, when sickness sidelines me for months, when I’m weary from yelling at my kids, and when the daily grind wears me down.
My story is the story of a woman pursued, and this can be your story, too. God is pursuing you as you read these words. He pursued you as he led you to this specific post on this specific day. . . .
Let’s take a closer look at the two gifts of goodness and mercy.
God Pursues Us With Goodness
“Goodness” can be translated as “the blessing of good things.”
As you sit in the waiting room and tremble in fear, God chases you with good things. He pursues you with blessings amid your day’s frustrations. He chases you with good gifts when life is hard, when grief surrounds you, and when the valley grows dark.
Your loving Father will never leave you.
He will continue to come for you, and he will carry gifts in his hands.
Maybe it’s been a while since you noticed a gift from God. Maybe life is difficult, and your heart is broken. He is still chasing you down. He is chasing you down with salmon-streaked sunsets, rainbow-imbibed soap bubbles, and kind words from strangers.
God chases us down in simple ways. Ask him to help you see his good gifts, and you will most likely be surprised.
God Pursues Us With Love in Action
God also chases you with mercy.
Mercy never meant much to me until I studied the original language for this word. I’ll spare you the details, but the study of this word has changed my life. We could replace the word “mercy” with the term “love-in-action.” God is literally chasing you down, and he wants to show you his love in action!
God chases you down with his love in action when you are lonely and afraid.
He pursues you with his love in action when you are lost and searching.
When you are living in sin and lost in worldly pleasures, God chases you down with his love in action.
When you’re not sure how you will get through another day, God chases you down with countless opportunities to encounter his love in action.
His love in action is among his greatest gifts to you. God’s love in action is waiting to fall upon you in the waiting room. It is there in the operating room, in the quiet of your bedroom, and in the lawyer’s office where those papers stare you down. His love in action is with you as you hold your child’s hand and pray for Jesus to help you. It is with you as you stare out the window and wait for that loved one to return.
If we’ll open our weary eyes, we just might see it: The Father runs toward us, and in his hands are gifts crafted just for us. This is my story, and it can be your story too. Share on X 
The invitation is simple. If you will humble yourself and admit that you need God’s gifts, they are yours to receive.
God Pursues Us and He Invites Us to Respond:
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