Chasing God

Oh. My. Word. I’m just not sure that it’s fair for one woman to have such an extraordinary gift. She not only has an incredible gift but I would go so far to say that it is an inspired one. I feel as though I owe a ton of gratitude and a long thank you letter to Angie Smith for writing this book and articulating so well the battle that most of us have struggled with for so long but haven’t found the words to articulate it. Chasing God. What a gift these twelve chapters will be for every single person who chooses to read them.

In “Chasing God”, author Angie Smith beautifully collides whit and sarcasm with grace and truth resulting in a clearly defined difference between chasing after God and pursuing the heart of God. She wrestles with the tension between looking for Him and looking at Him, and biblically guides her readers to the latter.

For far too long, the church has been gripped by the clutches of legalism, and it has at best crippled genuine faith and love for Jesus Christ. When it becomes more about checking things off of a list than it does loving God, we’ve somehow missed the mark. When the disciplines of the faith are nothing more than obligations that we find little to no delight in, we’re chasing God. Our motivation matters. Why are we found pursuing or following after God? Is it to impress God and anyone else who is watching or is it to come to know the heart of the Father? One of these options is chasing God. The other is the pursuit of Him.

Before I started to read this book, I worried that this might just be another Christian read that encourages you to stop trying so hard, pat yourself on the back, and just rest in God’s love, and in doing so, removing any and all responsibility on your part to be obedient in the disciplines of our faith (prayer, Bible reading, corporate worship, etc.). You can imagine my joy when I came to find out that I was wrong! Angie Smith doesn’t dismiss the importance or the necessity of these vital parts of our faith, rather she challenges us to determine our motivation for doing them. When our motivation is right, what was once duty turns into great delight.

If you’ve ever wondered why you feel far from the heart of God although you seem to be “doing all the right things”, then this book is for you. If you’ve ever found yourself consumed in the battle of comparison, always looking at your horizontal relationships and wondering why everyone else seems to know and love God more than you, all the while neglecting your vertical relationship (Jesus), then this book is for you. If you’ve ever been so caught up in the rules, regulations, expectations, and the guilt that comes along with all of it that you missed delighting in God’s love for you, then this book is for you. As she shares her own journey to freedom in “Chasing God”, she invites you to join her in choosing to be settled with the tension of not knowing all that there is to know about God. Because He is a mystery. Because He’s infinite. All the while, she will continue to redirect your heart to the pages of Scripture where truth is found and freedom is unleashed. This book will captivate your heart from page one and leave you near tears when you find that you’ve come to the end of it. Do yourself a huge favor. Read it for yourself. You’re welcome.