We all pursue. We are all objects of pursuit. We always pursue that which we’ve allowed to form and shape us. What or whom we pursue defines who we really are. Pursuit doesn’t always determine activity. Lazy people pursue…they pursue slothfulness and idleness. That’s why pursuit is simply the evidence of what is shaping us. What shapes us is what defines us. And what defines us will grow larger and larger the older we get.
Then the question here should then be, “what is defining us?” And for the record, it’s not our success or our failure that defines us. If its success, we can’t be defined by what we do or have done. Our accolades are not our identification. In the same way, if it’s failure, we shouldn’t be known as a former adulterer, drug addict, thief or liar.
We all tend to fall in the trap of environmental identification. It’s not our environment that defines us; rather it’s our inner man. Our inner man has the choice of pursuit. And we can either pursue our environment, which desires to shape and define us, or the Word of God, which is spoken by the Spirit of God and through the person of God.
So here’s the clincher… Whatever we pursue we give permission to define us. And what defines us will enlarge us (good or bad – positive or negative). So, this means that God’s word, in us, must be given more priority then what’s around us. I’ve learned it this way… “Until our revelation becomes greater than our environment, we will always live a contained life.”
“Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us…” Eph. 3:20
Who or what are you pursuing? Who or what are you giving permission to define you?
