The Lord always has compassion on those who truly need Him. He always responds to the extraordinary measures we take to follow Him. We can count on this fact. He meets us when we chase after Him, because He plans to meet us even before we start ourselves, and He knows where we are going.
Matthew writes, “Jesus […] withdrew by boat privately to a solitary place. Hearing of this, the crowds followed him on foot from the towns. When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick.”
We cannot read the above statement and fail to realize that Jesus healed the sick among the crowd on account of two things: His compassion, and their willingness to chase hard after Him. Whenever these two realities meet, we see a work of God.
The good news is that God is always compassionate. He exists apart from time, so His compassion is upon those He made even when His anger is aroused on account of their foolishness. The result is that no matter what our state before Him, God’s compassion is one hundred percent reliable. Likewise, His power is also completely reliable. We constantly witness His power at work all around us – we see the sun rise and the seasons change, and we know that He sustains all He created, moment by moment. So we can bank on the fact that God is powerful all the time, and that God is compassionate all the time. This means that God is always able and always open to ministering to us.
But what is not at all reliable is our own effort to chase hard after Him. We do that in seasons, but the effort to get up early and seek His face in prayer is easily set aside by the need for sleep or the laziness of the morning hours. The effort to open the Scriptures and really look for Him in studying its treasure is easily misplaced by the urgency of the day’s activity. The effort to worship Him with passion is often offset by the want to have a day of family sport. The effort to call on Him at the close of the day is easily replaced by the mindlessness of television. Even the smallest effort to remember Him – at the start of every meal – is easily lost to the aroma of the food in the face of our hunger.
Chasing hard after God takes real intentionality. It takes willfulness and self-determination. In this respect, it is a lot like physical exercise; difficult to establish as a routine, easy to let slip. It is entirely our responsibility, and it is the one thing about our relationship with God that is not reliable at all.
The really good news is that we can change that at will. We can make a decision to look for God with more determination. We can intentionally get back into the habits of communing with Him in the morning, talking to Him throughout the day, worshipping Him with passion every week and remembering His grace at every meal.
That we can do, and when we do that, we absolutely can count on God to respond. PTL.
In the words of Hans Küng: God’s immutability “must be understood as essential fidelity to himself in all his active vitality.” God’s being is indestructible, his plan and purpose are unalterable. His love is unfailing and inexorable. His grace is irreversible and persevering. This is the biblical picture of God’s unchangeableness.
Donald G. Bloesch
APPLICATION: Thankfulness
Thank God that He is unchangeable in His determination to be found by His people!