God’s Sure Pursuit

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

The devotional for today titled God's Sure Pursuit was written by John Blaise. Some years ago, a man walked about a block ahead of me. I could clearly see that his arms were full of packages. All of a sudden, he tripped, dropping everything. A couple of people helped him to his feet, assisting him in collecting what he'd dropped.

But they missed something, his wallet. I picked it up and took off in hot pursuit of the stranger, hoping to return that important item. I yelled, sir, sir, and finally got his attention. He turned just as I reached him.

As I held out the wallet, I'll never forget his look of surprised relief and immense gratitude. What began as following after that man turned into something quite different. Most English translations use the word follow in the final verse of the familiar Psalm 23. Surely your goodness and love will follow me. And while follow fits, the actual Hebrew word is much more forceful, aggressive even. The word literally means to pursue or chase, much like a predator pursues his prey. Think of a wolf pursuing sheep. God's goodness and love don't merely follow along after us at a casual pace in no real hurry.

No, surely we are being pursued, chased even with intention. Much like pursuing a man to return his wallet, we're pursued by the good shepherd who loves us with an everlasting love. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is the 23rd Psalm. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil.

My cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Let's pray. Good shepherd, thank you that your goodness and your love are in hot pursuit of us always. And it's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Thanks for listening today. My name is Wes Ward, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.