All the Pursuit

Author: Megan Summers

  • The Fall

    The Fall

    “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” Romans 3:23

    A few years ago, I found myself talking to two homeless men sitting behind a Starbucks, as I’ve always wanted to know why someone is where they are. When I mentioned Jesus, one of them stared off into the distance saying, “I was saved, once…”. I never asked him what he did or what happened, but his words pained me because I understood what he meant.

    You see, there are so many people who claim to be “Christians” that think they are saved and they aren’t. There are also many people who genuinely did surrender their hearts and lives to Christ, but they messed up somewhere or something painful happened to them so they think God dropped them or threw them away. But that’s far from the truth.

    As a youth pastor, I had always felt the need to be perfect. I had somewhat of a religious spirit, thinking in order to please God I had to do everything right. I would push myself to read the Bible and pray a certain amount of time daily. I wanted people to be proud of me so I would do anything and everything I could to show that “I was a good Christian young lady and could do no wrong”. On the inside of me though, nobody knew the childhood pain and trauma I still carried in my heart that I hadn’t let God deal with. That pain surfaced one day when I lashed out in anger at not only my own pastor, but at one of my youth girls who saw me as a spiritual mother. I had hurt the people I was meant to love and failed God, so I ran.

    Unfortunately, we can never outrun God. Falling on my face and failing was one of the best things that could ever happen to me. It not only broke me to the point that God was finally able to heal the brokenness I tried to hide, but it’s helped me truly understand what grace and mercy are.

    We tend to view God the way we view people, through conditional love. People are quick to drop us when we mess up or do or say something wrong. We get thrown away, we get ridiculed and second chances or forgiveness are not easily given. The love people give is typically conditional and if we don’t meet those conditions, then love gets removed.

    God does not love like man. His love is unconditional. The Bible says that “when we were sinners Christ died for us”. His love isn’t based off of what we do and it’s not taken away when we’ve done something wrong. His love is given even when we refuse it or don’t believe it.

    God never created us to be perfect because if we were, we would have no need for Him. We would have no need for a Savior. But He knows knows our weaknesses. He knows we cannot save ourselves. He knows the end from the beginning. He knows we are bound to fall, get hurt or get lost along the way. And it’s s in those places and seasons when we feel God has left us or thrown us away, that He is actually very near. It’s when we fall short and find ourselves broken that we can actually find healing and transformation if we allow it. It’s in the falling that we can be built back better and stronger than before. It’s in the falling where God’s hand is waiting to help you back up.

  • Visions of Uncertainty

    That moment when you realize the vision or promise you once carried seems so far away.

    Where did I go wrong, God?

    What did I miss?

    Did I not hear you correctly?

    Was it even real?

    What starts out on the right foot, so often gets lost in the course of everyday life. We experience setbacks. We get hurt. We get distracted. We lose focus. We end up settling for less.

    The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. John 10:10

    The devil’s greatest game is stealing, killing and destroying every good promise that comes from God: your worth, your purpose, your joy, your health, your dreams and everything in between. Yes, Jesus has already defeated the devil on the cross but He leaves it to us to act upon this truth. He leaves it to us to recognize the thief in our own life and do something about it. All of the promises of God are yes and Amen, but it is our responsibility to believe and receive them. Hence, the meaning of “fight the good fight of faith“!

    Remember Israel in the wilderness? God had already told them the Promised Land was theirs, but He also told them that they had to go and take it. They were too afraid. They saw an impossible thing, despite God saying He would be with them. They yielded to doubt and, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, they lost out on the vision God had given them. They lost out on the life they could’ve had.

    When God gives a vision, there’s always an element of faith required. Sure, there’s a journey along the way, but that journey is always filled with tests, failures and disappointments, often which cause us to give up or lose hope. The truth is, God never meant for us to give up….He meant for us to overcome.

    Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews 11:1

    There are times when we are waiting on God, but there are also times when He is waiting on us. Waiting on us to remember that vision, that promise, that desire He put in our hearts, or that thing we thought was impossible. Waiting on us to believe and act upon it.

     Then the Lord answered me and said:

    Write the vision
    And make it plain on tablets,
    That he may run who reads it.
    For the vision is yet for an appointed time;
    But at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.
    Though it tarries, wait for it;
    Because it will surely come,
    It will not tarry.     Habakkuk 2:2-3