Experiencing God
Day 4: God Pursues A Love Relationship
Day 4: God Pursues A Love Relationship
God takes the initiative. He chooses us, loves us, and reveals His eternal purposes for our lives.
God always takes the initiative in our love relationship. The witness of the entire Bible testifies that God pursues us and orchestrates ways for us to experience Him. He came to Adam and Eve in the garden. In love He had fellowship with them and they with Him. He came to Noah, Abraham, Moses, and the prophets. God took the initiative for each person in the Old Testament to experience Him in a personal fellowship of love. In the New Testament Jesus approached His disciples and chose them to be with Him and to experience His love. He came to Paul on the Damascus road.
In our natural human state we do not seek God on our own initiative.
Read Romans 3:10-12 and answer these questions.
a. How many people are naturally righteous? _______________________________________
b. How many people understand spiritual truths on their own? _________________________
c. How many people naturally seek God? __________________________________________
d. How many people instinctively do good? ________________________________________
Romans 3:10-12
“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
No one! Not even one! Sin has marred us so deeply no one seeks God on his own initiative. Therefore, if we are to have a relationship with Him and His Son, God must take the initiative. This is exactly what He does.
John 6:44-45,65
“No one can come to me [Jesus] unless the Father who sent me draws him. Everyone who listens to the Father and learns from him comes to me. This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.”
Read John 6:44-45,65 and answer these questions.
a. Who can come to Jesus without being drawn by the Father? ________________________
b. What does a person do who listens to the Father and learns from Him? ________________
___________________________________________________________________________
c. What is the only way a person can come to Jesus? _________________________________
“The L ORD appeared to us in the past saying:
‘I have loved you with an everlasting love;
I have drawn you with loving-kindness’ ” (Jer. 31:3).
I led them with cords of human kindness,
with ties of love;
I lifted the yoke from their neck
and bent down to feed them (Hos. 11:4).
The love God focuses on your life is an everlasting love. From that love He has pursued you. He has drawn you with cords of love when you were not His friend but His enemy. He gave His own Son to die for you. To firmly anchor your experiencing God and knowing His will, you must be absolutely convinced of God’s love for you.
How do you know God loves you? Give evidence that convinces you of His love for you. __________________________________________________________________________
God came to Saul, later known as Paul (see Acts 9:1-19). Saul was opposing God and His people and was fighting against God’s Son, Jesus. Jesus came to Saul and revealed the Father’s purposes of love for him. This is also true in our lives. We do not choose Him. He chooses us, loves us, and reveals His eternal purposes for our lives (see Rom. 8:29-30).
Jesus said to His disciples, “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world” (John 15:16,19). Didn’t Peter choose to follow Jesus? No. Jesus chose Peter. Peter responded to God’s invitation. God took the initiative.
Jesus said Peter was responding to God’s initiative in his life (see Matt. 16:13-17 ). Jesus asked the disciples who people said He was. Then He asked them who they thought He was. Peter correctly answered, “You are the Christ.” Then Jesus made a profound statement to Peter: “This was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.”
Matthew 16:13-17
“When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, ‘Who do people say the Son of Man is?’
“They replied, ‘Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets.’
“ ‘But what about you?’ he asked. ‘Who do you say I am?’
“Simon Peter answered, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.’
“Jesus replied, ‘Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven.’ ”
Who had revealed to Peter that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah? __________________________________________________________________________
In essence Jesus said, “Peter, you could never have known and confessed that I am the Christ unless My Father had been at work in your life. He caused you to know who I am. You are responding to the Father’s activity in your life.”
Do you realize God determined to love you? Apart from that, you never would have become a Christian. He had something in mind when He called you. He began to work in your life. You experienced a love relationship with God when He took the initiative. He opened your understanding. He drew you to Himself.
What did you do when God took the initiative? Identify your response.
❒ I responded to His invitation to a love relationship.
❒ I rejected His offer of a love relationship.
When you responded to His invitation, He brought you into a love relationship with Himself. You would never know that love, be in the presence of that love, or experience that love if God had not first reached out to you. You cannot know God’s activity unless He takes the initiative to reveal it to you.
Number the following items from 1 to 4 in the order they occur in the development of a love relationship with God.
____ a. God comes into my life and fellowships with me.
____ b. I respond to God’s activity in my life and invite Him to do in my life
what He pleases.
____ c. God shows me His love and reveals Himself to me.
____ d. God chooses me because of His love.
Some of these actions almost seem to happen at the same time. Yet we can be sure of this: God takes the initiative; then we respond. I numbered the items a–4, b–3, c–2, d–1. God always takes the initiative in loving us.
The following Scriptures speak of God’s initiative in the love relationship. Read each verse. Then briefly summarize how God acts (acted) or what He does (did) to take the initiative.
“The L ORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live” (Deut. 30:6). __________________________________________________________________________
“All things have been committed to me by my Father. No one knows who the Son is except the Father, and no one knows who the Father is except the Son and those to whom the Son chooses to reveal him” (Luke 10:22). __________________________________________________________________________
“You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last” (John 15:16). __________________________________________________________________________
“It is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Phil. 2:13). __________________________________________________________________________
“This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us” (1 John 3:16). __________________________________________________________________________
“Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Rev. 3:20). __________________________________________________________________________
Write one of these words in the blank to make the following statement true:
❒ never ❒ sometimes ❒ frequently ❒ always
God ____________ takes the initiative to establish a love relationship with me.
SUMMARY STATEMENTS
God always takes the initiative in this love relationship.
I do not choose Him. He chooses me, loves me, and reveals His eternal purposes for my life.
I cannot know God’s activity unless He takes the initiative to reveal it to me.
Review today’s lesson. Pray and ask God to identify one or more statements or Scriptures He wants you to understand, learn, or practice. Highlight them. Then respond to the following.
What was the most meaningful statement or Scripture you read today?
Reword the statement or Scripture into a prayer of response to God.
What does God want you to do in response to today’s study?