Are You Being Chased?

by Aleta Kay



          Remember when you had your first crush on the opposite sex? If you’re a female who grew up in an old-fashioned household, you were taught that girls don’t chase boys. You let them come to you. But you wanted him to notice you.  You wanted his attention. You’d do almost anything to cause him to look your way.

          If the boy did chase you, you may have pretended not to care. You played the coy, shy card. You wanted to see how serious he was. He’d pull your pony tail, accidentally bump into you in the hallway or on the way to the pencil sharpener. He’d put an eraser on your chair, tell you that you were ugly. But the whole time you knew he liked you and was just afraid to say so.

          Imagine Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. God has spent days just talking with them. Then one day the serpent comes along and convinces Eve that God is holding out on her. He’s not allowing her into His inner circle. God had told her that if she ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil she would become like a god and her eyes would be opened. (Do you ever try to protect your children from the evil in the world?)

          The serpent didn’t go to Adam. Adam would have been wise enough not to listen to the devil. That’s why the serpent went to Eve. The serpent knew how much Adam loved his wife. He knew that Adam would never want to live without her. So if the serpent could convince Eve that God was not as good of a friend as they thought he was, Adam would share the same fate as Eve. It was all a plot for the serpent to get revenge on his arch enemy, God.

          Later that day, after Adam and Eve hid themselves in the garden, God came in the cool of the evening and called them. “Adam, Eve, where are you? Why are you hiding from me? You’ve never hidden from me before. What’s going on? You ate the forbidden fruit, didn’t you?”

          God was, in essence, chasing them as a boy or girl would chase the object of their affection. God’s feelings were hurt. The relationship was broken. They had had such close fellowship; now there was a chasm between them. Innocence was gone; new knowledge had been introduced. God needed to find a way to bridge the gap. But things would never quite be the same because now the relationship was tainted by sin, whereas before it had been pure.

          God is still chasing people today. He wants to have fellowship with you. Most people, if asked if they are a Christian, will answer in the affirmative. “I believe in God.” “Of course I am; I go to church,” or “I’m Catholic” or some other denomination. Guess what? The devil, Satan, believes in God and trembles but he is definitely not a Christian.

          Going to church, belonging to a particular denomination, saying so many prayers a day, doing good to others, abstaining from drugs, alcohol and illicit sex will not get you into heaven. The only good thing inside any of us was put there by God. We can’t take any credit for it. Jesus said, “He that believeth on the Son hath life; and he that believeth not is condemned already.”

          It’s great that you believe in God, but do you also believe that Jesus Christ is God the Son; that he died for your sins and mine on a cruel cross, that he was buried for three days and nights and rose again? If you don’t believe that, you are not a Christian. You are a religious person and/or a churchgoer. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the life. No man comes unto the Father but by me.”

          Isaiah chapter 9 says Jesus will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, and the Prince of Peace. He is all of those things. Those are His names. May you come to know and love the Prince of Peace in this blessed season of peace. In Jesus’s name, Amen.