What Are You Chasing?

What Are You Chasing?

An Elaborate Devotion for Busy People

Opening Stillness (1 Minute)

You are running.

Not necessarily with your feet—though your step count might confirm it. You are running with your mind, your calendar, your ambition, your anxiety. You are chasing something, and you have been chasing it for so long that you no longer remember why you started. You only know that stopping feels like death.

Maybe it is success. Maybe it is approval. Maybe it is security, or love, or the perfect body, or the right address, or the validation of people whose opinions should not matter. Maybe it is the illusion of control in a world that refuses to be controlled. Whatever it is, it is always ahead of you. Always just out of reach. And the chasing is exhausting you.

Before you read on, stop running. Not forever—just for this minute. Let your ambition rest. Let your anxiety sit down. You do not have to figure out your whole life in the next fifteen minutes. You only have to be honest about what you are chasing and whether it is worth the cost.

Breathe. The thing you are looking for may be closer than you think.

The Anchor Scripture

Ecclesiastes 2:11 & Matthew 6:33 (NIV)

"Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun."

"But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well."

Part 1: The Chase We're On

(2–3 Minutes)

Every human being is chasing something.

It is built into our design. We were made to pursue, to long, to hunger, to reach. The question is not whether you will chase. The question is what you will chase and whether it can bear the weight of your soul.

Solomon chased everything. He was the ultimate case study in human ambition. Wealth? He had gold measured in tons. Pleasure? He had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines. Wisdom? He was the wisest man who ever lived. Achievement? He built cities, temples, and gardens that were the wonder of the ancient world.

And at the end of his life, he wrote the verdict: "Everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind." The Hebrew word for meaningless is hevel—it means vapor, breath, mist, something that looks solid but disappears when you try to grasp it.

This is the nature of almost everything we chase under the sun. It promises satisfaction but delivers addiction. It promises identity but delivers insecurity. It promises rest but delivers the treadmill. We chase the wind, and we wonder why our hands are empty.

But here is the deeper truth: we do not chase things because we are greedy. We chase things because we are thirsty. We are looking for God in all the wrong places. We are trying to fill a God-shaped hole with God-shaped substitutes. And no substitute—no matter how impressive—can satisfy a hunger for the real thing.

Reflect: What are you chasing right now? Be specific. Is it money, status, approval, security, love, control, escape, perfection? What does your calendar, your credit card statement, and your emotional energy say about your real priorities?

Part 2: The Emptiness of the Wrong Pursuit

(3–4 Minutes)

The problem with chasing the wrong thing is not that you catch it. The problem is that you do.

When you finally get the promotion, you discover it does not fill the hole. When you finally win the approval, you discover it is a drug that requires bigger doses. When you finally achieve the body, the bank account, the relationship, the reputation—you discover that the hunger is still there, gnawing at the edges of your accomplishment.

Ecclesiastes 1:8 says: "All things are wearisome, more than one can say. The eye never has enough of seeing, nor the ear its fill of hearing." This is the law of insatiability. The soul that looks to created things for satisfaction will always need more. More money. More likes. More success. More control. More proof that you are enough.

And the chase becomes a prison. You are not free. You are owned by the thing you are pursuing. Your mood depends on whether you are gaining ground. Your worth depends on whether you are winning. Your peace depends on circumstances you cannot control.

Jesus saw this clearly. In John 6:27, He said: "Do not work for food that spoils, but for food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you." He was not saying that physical food does not matter. He was saying that if your highest chase is for things that perish, your soul will perish with them.

The food that spoils includes everything that rusts, fades, breaks, disappoints, or dies. The food that endures is God Himself. And Jesus says something shocking: "which the Son of Man will give you." You do not have to chase it. You do not have to earn it. You do not have to prove you deserve it. It is given.

Reflect: What "food that spoils" have you been working for? What have you caught that left you hungrier than before? Can you admit that the chase has not delivered what it promised?

Part 3: The One Thing Worth Chasing

(3–4 Minutes)

Psalm 42:1 says: "As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God."

This is the image of a chase that satisfies. Not a deer chasing a mirage. A deer chasing water. Real water. Living water. The thing that actually quenches thirst instead of creating it.

The psalmist is not describing a mild preference. He is describing a panting. A desperate, whole-body longing. The soul was made to chase God. Nothing else can satisfy the chase because nothing else is what the soul was designed to pursue.

But here is the twist: God is not running away from you.

Every other chase requires pursuit because the object is elusive. Money must be earned. Approval must be won. Success must be achieved. Security must be built. They are always ahead of you, always demanding more.

But God is not ahead of you. He is with you. He is not elusive. He is imminent. He does not require you to catch Him. He requires you to turn toward Him. To seek Him. To pant for Him.

Jeremiah 29:13 says: "You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Not if you are good enough. Not if you perform well enough. When you seek. The promise is not that the chase is hard. The promise is that the finding is guaranteed.

And Jesus makes it even more radical. In Matthew 6:33, He says: "But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." Seek first the Kingdom. Make God your primary chase. And everything else—the things you were so desperately pursuing—will be added to you.

Not because God is a vending machine. But because when you have God, you finally have enough. And the things that mattered so much lose their tyrannical grip.

Reflect: When was the last time your soul panted for God the way it pants for other things? What would it look like to redirect your chase toward the only stream that satisfies?

Part 4: Counting Everything as Loss

(3–4 Minutes)

Paul understood the transfer of chase better than anyone.

He writes in Philippians 3:7–8: "But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ."

This is the language of a man who changed his chase. Paul had credentials that would make any modern resume weep with envy. Hebrew of Hebrews. Pharisee of Pharisees. Blameless under the law. Rising star. Influential, educated, impressive.

And he calls it all skybalon—the Greek word for garbage, dung, refuse. Not because credentials are evil, but because compared to Christ, they are worthless. They are the wrong chase. They are food that spoils. They are vapor.

Paul did not stop achieving. He planted churches, wrote Scripture, changed the world. But his chase was no longer for his own glory. It was for Christ. "I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me" (Philippians 3:12).

This is the great exchange. You stop chasing the approval of people and start chasing the approval of God. You stop chasing security and start chasing the One who holds your future. You stop chasing success and start chasing significance. You stop chasing happiness and start chasing holiness. And in the process, you discover that everything you actually wanted was hidden inside the One you were avoiding.

Reflect: What "gains" in your life might actually be losses if they are keeping you from Christ? What are you holding onto that you need to release in order to take hold of Him?

Part 5: When You Realize You've Been Chasing the Wrong Thing

(3–4 Minutes)

There is a particular grief that comes with seeing your chase clearly.

You look back at the years, the energy, the money, the relationships, the health you sacrificed on the altar of the wrong god. You see the anxiety you normalized. The people you used. The integrity you compromised. The joy you traded for a scorecard. And the grief is sharp.

But grief is not the end of the story. It is the doorway.

Jesus tells a story about a merchant who found a pearl of great value. "When he found it, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it" (Matthew 13:46). The selling everything is not the point. The pearl is the point. And the moment you see the pearl clearly, everything else becomes sellable.

You do not have to mourn the wrong chase forever. You can let it go. You can sell it. You can walk away from the treadmill, even if everyone else is still running. You can be the one who stops, turns, and walks toward the stream while the herd continues chasing the wind.

This requires courage. The world will not understand. They will call you foolish for leaving the race. They will question your sanity for pursuing an invisible Kingdom when visible empires are within reach. But the world has never been good at recognizing what actually matters.

Reflect: What wrong chase do you need to walk away from? What treadmill do you need to step off? What would it cost you to stop, and what would it cost you to keep going?

Part 6: Practical Ways to Redirect Your Chase

(3–4 Minutes)

You cannot think your way into a new chase. You need practices. Daily, stubborn, small reorientations.

The Priority Audit. Look at your calendar and bank statement from last month. What do they reveal about what you are actually chasing? Not what you say you value—what you actually value. Let the evidence speak, and let it humble you.

The Morning Seeking. Before you check your phone, before you plan your productivity, before you chase anything else, say this: "Lord, I seek You first today. Let Your Kingdom be my chase." One minute. One sentence. One reorientation.

The Comparison Fast. For one day, stop measuring your life against anyone else's. Unfollow the accounts that trigger your chase. Stop the scroll that feeds your hunger for more. Let your soul breathe without the pressure of comparison.

The Gratitude Inventory. Write down five things you already have that you could not earn. Health. Breath. Salvation. A friend's text. The sunrise. Gratitude starves the chase by reminding you that you are already rich.

The One Step Back. Identify one area where your chase has become destructive. One relationship you are using. One compromise you are making. One anxiety you are feeding. Take one step back from it today. Not the whole journey. Just one step.

Part 7: A Prayer of Reorientation

(2–3 Minutes)

Read this prayer as a turning. Let it be the moment you change direction.

Lord, I have been chasing the wind.

I have run after things that promised life and delivered exhaustion. I have hungered for food that spoils. I have built my identity on achievements that evaporate. I have sacrificed my peace on the altar of control. I have traded my soul for scores that no one will remember.

I confess that my chase has been wrong. Not because the things are evil, but because they are not You. They are substitutes. They are mirages. They are vapor in my hands.

I stop running today. Not because I have arrived, but because I am turning. I turn my face toward You. I pant for You like the deer pants for water. I seek Your Kingdom first, trusting that everything else will find its proper place.

Show me the pearl of great price. Let me see Christ so clearly that everything else becomes sellable. Let me count my gains as loss if they keep me from You. Let me press on toward the goal—not the goal of success, but the goal of knowing You.

For the years I have wasted chasing the wrong things, I receive Your mercy. For the compromises I have made, I receive Your forgiveness. For the identity I have built on sand, I exchange it for the identity I have in You.

Make me a person who chases the right thing. Who seeks You in the morning. Who finds You in the ordinary. Who is satisfied with Your presence rather than haunted by absence. Who is rich in what matters and light in what does not.

I seek You, Lord. And I trust that I will find You.

In Jesus' name, Amen.

Closing Blessing

(1 Minute)

Go now, not as a slave to the chase, but as a seeker of the Kingdom. You do not have to earn what is freely given. You do not have to prove what is already yours.

May the Lord satisfy your soul's deepest thirst with His own presence.

May you stop chasing the wind and find the stream that never runs dry.

May you count everything as loss compared to the surpassing worth of knowing Christ.

And may you discover that when you seek first His Kingdom, everything you truly need is added unto you.

Stop chasing. Start seeking. He is not far. He is here.

Return to this devotion whenever the treadmill speeds up. The pearl is still waiting. And the water is still running.