The Blessings in Pursuing God

What is something that comes natural to you? Okay, what is something that you really had to work hard at to become good?

Well, for us as Christians, we have been made children of God by the work of Jesus for us. But this doesn’t mean that the Christian life isn’t something we have to work at. You see, one fear of mine is that we don’t take ownership of our faith. We profess to believe in Jesus but we live on autopilot as though mom and dad are doing the Christian walk for us by taking us to Church. But it’s your responsibility to live in light of what you say you believe and if we are Christians like we say we are, then God is looking at us today and is calling us to pay attention and take this seriously because there are dangers ahead. And today we will not only see some of the dangers, but we will also find that He promises blessings to those who hear His call and pursue Him seriously.

God is Calling You to Seriously Pursue Him (1-4)

Notice the growing intensity of the verbs here in verse 1-4. First, its receive, treasure and incline. Then its cry out and lift up. Then its seek for like silver and search for like hidden treasures.

What we are finding here is a growing call for urgency in our pursuit of wisdom. God is calling us to ditch half-heart lukewarmness and to relentless pursue Him. To step out of our comfort zone and to hurl ourselves into fully pursuing God (R. Ortlund, Prov., 53)

What is so great about the status quo that we hold onto? What is so great, as we know this young man is dealing with in this text in verses 12-19, about being enticed by the world. By falling to the temptations to walk with wicked men, to fall to sexual temptation, to celebrate perversions in our lives.

God is calling us, as His children, to pursue Him. To wake up and pay attention and to, because we know His love as His children, get intentional with our pursuit of Him.

If we will do that. If we will diligently seek Him, He promises that we will:

That You Might Know Him Better (5-8)

In verse 6-8, He promises that if we commit ourselves to pursuing wisdom, He will give it. And how does He give it? From His mouth, or to put it simply, God will give us the wisdom, or knowledge of Him, that we desire through His Word. The Bible. Through that, we go on to see, we find God to be a shield for us. We find that He will guard us on the paths of justice and will keep us in the right way.

God is promising you and I that if we will diligently commit ourselves to seeking His face, His wisdom, in the Word that He will show Himself to us and His Word will work in us. Which blends in with the next promise which is, God is calling us to seek Him

That You Might Crave Righteousness Deeper(9-11)

The longer I walk with Christ, the more I mourn the fact that I don’t hate my sin more than I do. I want to hate sin more, I want to love righteousness more and God actually has something to say about that here in verse 9-11.

Here He promises us that if we diligently cry out to Him and seek Him, He will use Him word to work in our hearts new desires. We will have a new appetite for the things of God. We will crave righteousness in a wicked world. Are you tired of your mind always thinking of evil, combat it with the Word of God and meditate on it. And as you do, you will find that we should come:

That You Might Resist Sin Stronger (12-19)

From wicked men.

Now, when he speaks of men who speak perverse things, he isn’t only talking about dirty jokes. That word actually means, “To turn upside down.” These are people who might speak with good words, but there is evil behind them. These are the popular people who invite you into their group so you will fall into sin with them. These are the people who everyone adores because they have them fooled. These are the people who invite you in and you are tempted to join them because of their popularity and here we are promised that if the wisdom of God dwells in us, we will be wise enough to escape these situations.

From the immoral woman

Not only does he speak of popularity, but now he speaks of sexual sins. Apparently here Solomon has a married, church going woman in mind because he says she forsake her husband, the companion of her youth, and hat she forgets her covenant with God. So this woman has hardened her mind against God and her own husband and has decided she is going to pursue you and he wants us to know that it might be tempting but that falling to this isn’t just a one time thing, but it comes with baggage that will hang around for good.

We can’t expect that when Potiphar’s wife comes calling, we will immediately resist like Joseph did. We must be steeped in the word and walking with God. His wisdom will deliver you, it will keep you from seeing the temporary satisfaction of sin and allow you to see it as a life of regret and sin against the God who loves you. It will keep you on the way of goodness as verse 20 says

But it doesn’t end here, He lists one more blessing which is:

That You Might Dwell in Him Forever (21-22)

In verse 21, He promises that the upright will dwell in the land. Remember, its by His work that we are made upright in Christ and then, through His word, we are sanctified to crave uprightness in our souls. Now, don’t skip this. Because if you move too fast you might think, “Yeah, he’s saying that good Jews would be safe in Israel.” But that’s not all. See, today we don’t live in the Old Testament Israel, but instead we reside in the Kingdom of God that Jesus speaks of in the New Testament and since Jesus reigns from Heaven, the Kingdom of God is everywhere, it’s simply through us that it becomes visible.

Or to put it this way, for us who pursue God, God will ensure that others with see Him in us and not only this, but He will ensure this forever. Remember, Philippians 1:6 “6 being confident of this very thing, that He who has begun a good work in you will complete it until the day of Jesus Christ;”