Let Yourself Be Pursued

Discernment is mostly passive.

A friend passed this nugget of wisdom onto me a few weeks ago and I’ve been mulling over the implications ever since.

Discernment is mostly passive.  God asks us to wait in prayerful silence, learning to listen to His voice.  God always initiates and we need to let him pursue us.

Let yourself be pursued.

Once he initiates something, we are asked to respond and take action.  In every day and every decision, ask, “how does God want me to respond?”

One passage which I believe perfectly exemplifies this can be found in John 9.  Jesus heals a blind man and the particulars of this healing are a great indication of how God works.  When questioned as to how he was healed, the man in this story replies:   “The man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and told me, ‘Go to Siloam and wash.’ So I went there and washed and was able to see.”

Jesus placed mud on the man’s eyes, but then the man had to wash it off himself in order to be healed.  Jesus initiated the necessary ritual but the man had to make a choice to believe Jesus was who He said He was.  God initiates but through free will, we have the choice whether to respond and in what way.

Then Jesus said, “I came into this world for judgment, so that those who do not see might see, and those who do see might become blind.” (John 9:39)  Allow yourself to be blinded to God’s bigger plan and learn to see with the eyes of faith.

Lord, let my heart be in a constant state of contemplation and adoration.