The Relentless Pursuit

In the movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, the outlaw pair seem able to do whatever they please with few, if any challenges. No one seems able to either find or capture them until the railroad enlists Joe Lefors, a famous lawman to undertake the job. Lefors was known by his easily noticed skimmer hat. Throughout the last portion of the movie Butch and Sundance scramble from place to place, seemingly always seeing the skimmer hat of Joe Lefors shimmering in the distance. Even after they make their way to Bolivia, in one climactic scene, the pair think they see the hat of Joe Lefors off in the distance. They were overwhelmed by Lefors' relentless pursuit. It seemed that he would not rest until he had apprehended his prey.

I wonder what our lives would look like if we were equally relentless in our pursuit of God and His will for our lives. How much better could we govern our lives if we refused to rest until we both knew and understood the truths God reveals in Scripture? What would we be doing if we were determined to seek after God's will until we knew for certain that we were doing what God had called us to do?

For too often we break off our search before we achieve our goals. We seek God's will for our lives, but we grow weary in seeking if the answers don't come right away. We have a desire to understand God's Word, but if the truths are too difficult to find for ourselves, we simply let others tell us what to believe. We pray, but if God does not say "yes" right away we assume His answer is "no" and we move on to something else. We become "weary in well-doing" and we give up before victory is achieved.

This is not the pattern we find in the Scriptures. In the book of Genesis, Abraham was relentless in his pursuit of God's mercy for Sodom and Gomorrah. David constantly seeks after God's response and favor throughout the rising and ebbing tides of of his life. Jesus lifts up the example of a woman who continually seeks justice from a magistrate. Paul tells us to "pray without ceasing." These examples and many more speak to the relentless pursuit of God's presence, His blessing and His will.

I am convinced that things would be far different for most of us if we would be relentless in our pursuit of God, relentless in our desire to know His Word and relentless in our pursuit of His will.