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Furious Pursuit: Why God Will Never Let You Go

Review

Furious Pursuit: Why God Will Never Let You Go

Subtitled “Why God Will Never Let You Go,” FURIOUS PURSUIT opens with Frank Martin’s admission that he’s tired of chasing after God. Like so many Christians, over the years Martin had been subtly and perhaps even unintentionally fed the lie that we need to spend our lives pursuing God --- as if God is running on ahead of us and daring us to see if we can catch up. His admission, however, led him to a deeper understanding of the kind of relationship God wants to have with us, one that is not based on our pursuit of him but rather on his relentless pursuit of us.
 
That’s good news for many who believe they must strive to find God, impress God, grab God’s attention, make God love them, and so forth --- if only they can believe this good news. To bolster their premise that God is the one chasing us, Tim King and Frank Martin have organized their thoughts and the book along the lines of a classic courtship, beginning with the encouragement to stop running after God and allow yourself the pleasure of being the one pursued for a change.
 
The authors then describe the romance that is already in progress, God’s passion for you and what you need to understand about his nature and his desire to be in relationship with the people he created. “Whether or not you like it,” they write, “whether or not you ever fully grasp the concept, you are playing a part in history’s greatest and grandest Love Story. And although the Story is not about you, it has everything to do with you.”
 
If you’ve ever read John Eldredge’s THE SACRED ROMANCE, this is probably starting to sound familiar. If you haven’t, then read on, because the authors at this point lead us to a section on the courtship itself and show us how our understanding of our identity is critical to appreciating God’s pursuit of us, how God wins us over to this romantic relationship with him, and how we can fully enjoy that relationship in the present. A final section describes this relationship as a “marriage to be consummated,” beginning with a divine proposal that we commit ourselves to God for eternity. The authors describe our positive response to this sacred invitation in this way: “You and I give ourselves freely and willingly into the arms of God, allowing ourselves to be folded completely into the fury of his love and enraptured by the passions of his desire.”
 
Christians who are tired of running after God --- and who have not read Eldredge and others who have written extensively on our role in the larger story of God’s love --- will likely find a great deal here that will help convince them that God is indeed the one doing the pursuing and that they can stop all their striving to win God’s favor. (King and Martin have also created a companion workbook, which I have not read, that is available separately.)

Reviewed by Marcia Ford on July 18, 2006

Furious Pursuit: Why God Will Never Let You Go
by Tim King and Frank Martin

  • Publication Date: July 18, 2006
  • Genres: Christian, Christian Living
  • Paperback: 224 pages
  • Publisher: WaterBrook Press
  • ISBN-10: 1400071496
  • ISBN-13: 9781400071494