Do we desire God as He desires us?

 Musing 1/31/21

Do we desire God as He desires us?

Photo by Dennis Gries from Pixabay 

What has He done to show His desire towards us?

First of all, He created us with free-will. What exactly does that mean? It means He was willing to take the risk that His created people could choose to hate Him, could choose to be selfish, could choose to do evil.
Without giving us this free-will, meaningful relationships and true Love would not be possible. If we didn't have free-will we'd only be doing what He programmed/designed us to do, there is nothing meaningful in that. Would you feel deeply touched if your cell-phone woke you up every morning and told you, "I Love You!"? Of course not. Why? Because a cell phone is programmed it doesn't have Free-will. There would be nothing truly meaningful, no real relationship between something that is simply designed to do and say loving things.
But when a person has a choice to love someone or something else and they choose you, then you can feel touched deeply. And the greatest love that can be shown to us is when someone lays down their life for ours. Whether it's daily self-denial to make our life more comfortable or it's jumping in front of a bullet that was meant for us. This kind of sacrificial choice reaches into our innermost being and touches us deeply.

So what has God done to show us His love for us?

He took on the nature of His own created people.

Now He can feel what we feel, sickness, both emotional and physical pain as men feel not as a God who is all-powerful.

He set aside His God-power* and this is what made Him becoming a man so meaningful.

Had He kept His God-power all He did would not seem so exceptional because He had God-power to do what He did. But He laid His God-power aside and that's why all that He did is so inspiring because He was an example to us of what we ourselves (by His grace) can do as His created people. We can live a selfless, sacrificial life, seeking only to fulfill the Father's will for our life and not seeking our own. And by doing so we become one with the only God who Loves us immeasurably.

Just now as I am writing this musing I was reminded that Christ speaks specifically of wanting to be one with us. So I looked it up and even after being a follower of Christ for over 20 years, I don't think this chapter has ever hit me like it did just now in light of everything I am musing on. Please read it without distraction and really take in the deep Love of God and be inspired by what He calls us to.
John 17:1-26
[1]These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also may glorify thee:
*[2]As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him. {this is one God-power He actually had that we don't}
[3]And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
[4]I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do.
[5]And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was.
[6]I have manifested thy name unto the men which thou gavest me out of the world: thine they were, and thou gavest them me; and they have kept thy word.
[7]Now they have known that all things whatsoever thou hast given me are of thee.
[8]For I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.
[9]I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which thou hast given me; for they are thine.
[10]And all mine are thine, and thine are mine; and I am glorified in them.
[11]And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.
[12]While I was with them in the world, I kept them in thy name: those that thou gavest me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled.
[13]And now come I to thee; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have my joy fulfilled in themselves.
[14]I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
[15]I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
[16]They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
[17]Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
[18]As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
[19]And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. {Here we see a manifestation of His self-less love}
[20]Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
[21]That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
[22]And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
[23]I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
[24]Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world.
[25]O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.
[26]And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it: that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.

And this is His desire to become one with us.

After considering this reality let's honestly ask and examine our hearts with this question,
"Do we desire God as He desires us?"

I know there are times that I have (greatly desired Him) and that's what caused me to find Him in the first place and to give up my life at the time to follow Him. I haven't stopped following Him all these 20+ years, but sadly I have lost my initial hunger and thirst for Him at times. I have also been distracted by the cares of this life creeping back into my heart, and selfish desires finding a way back into my heart...
So today His love is still drawing me to Him by waking me up with these inspiring thoughts. And although I have not allowed myself to be as close to Him as He wants to be with me (I realize I am a fool for preferring other things over deep intimacy with Him)...I by His tender mercies can be renewed in my inner being to return to that place of undistracted adoration where the whole heart, all the mind, and soul are captivated by Him and Him alone, and nothing else matters.

I have been telling my husband, I wish (not permanently that) I could be a mind without a body because I don't want to have to tend to the needs of this body, I just want to spend hours thinking on the things of God. I don't want to be distracted with getting up to make food and eat, etc. Although, God designed us to have a body and a mind and His design is best. Communion with God gives us life and true satisfaction. We have to learn to maintain that communion even with all the needs of our body.

I had been in and out of seasons of preferring all the other things rather than intimacy with Him, and rather than thinking solely on heavenly things... Now I lay here and it's passed noon and I don't care for anything else, I don't care that I haven't eaten, I don't care that my body is uncomfortable from laying in this bed so long... Why am I telling the world this?

Because, I want you to be inspired, and be influenced to not make the mistakes I have made by allowing life to be so busy that even if you are serving God in what you are doing, you still aren't having enough intimate communion with Him.
In any relationship we have, it will suffer if even though the person is a spouse or a child, or someone you see and serve daily; if you don't stop and have a meaningful undistracted deep conversation with that person the relationship will suffer. Sure you "love" each other, but the relationship loses its satisfaction and strength and if you continue to set those more intimate conversations aside you may lose even that relationship that you thought you had.

Many today call themselves Christian because the concept of the word Christian has lost its deep meaning. Now there is this idea that you say a "sinners prayer" and thereby become "saved" and now you call yourself a "Christian".

Back in the days of Old when the Word Christian was first used it meant making a decision that was contrary to societal and religious norms that would likely get you tortured and killed. It entailed making a radical change in your thoughts and actions.

Today how many who call themselves Christian struggle to even make the most basic changes in their life, like that of their outward adorning, or telling their friends about their new found love of Christ? If they struggle with the basics how will they be willing to be tortured and keep the faith? If they don't want to be mocked for not wearing the latest fashion how will they endure being mocked for following what the world believes to be a foolish imagination, "a God that suffered to save us!" they mockingly say {hear their scoffing?}.
How humiliating is it for you to take a stand for what is pure and lovely in front of family or friends? How humiliating is it for you to walk away from sinful entertainment your family and friends want you to partake in? How humiliating is it if someone cracks a joke about abortion and you remain silent instead of sharing the truth? And then (for the women) the idea of wearing a veil to cover the head! "Yikes!" "How humiliating is that!!!?" Think of things you struggle to do for love of Christ and then...

Ask Christ how humiliating it was that people thought He was born of fornication. Ask Christ how humiliating it was to stand before reverenced religious men and have them think what He was saying was demonic or that He was a lunatic, or that He was just some proud, high-minded fool seeking a religious following. Ask Christ how humiliating it was to have his family hear so many people thinking that He's crazy. Ask Christ how humiliating it was to be laughed to scorn by a crowd of people. Ask Christ how humiliating it was to be whipped in front of all kinds of people and spit on and have His beard ripped out and to be stripped of His clothing in front of family, friends, and strangers. Ask Christ how humiliating it was to be nailed to a tree naked hanging before people He loved that imagined Him to be worthy of such treatment, that thought He was a fool and called out to Him,

"...Thou that destroyest the temple, and buildest it in three days, save thyself. If thou be the Son of God, come down from the cross." ~Matthew 27:40

And now ask yourself, "How do the things I struggle with doing for God even compare to the humiliation Christ suffered for love of me!?"

Do we desire God as He desires us?
What are we not willing to do for love of Him?
Some people are giving up a marriage to someone they really love because they discovered under the New Covenant divorce and remarriage is not permitted. (Mark 10:2-12)What an amazing love they have for God!
Some are in prison for love of Him.
Some are being tortured for love of Him.

The sincerity of our love will be tested as it is in every relationship we have.
True Love is sacrificial, True Love is what God has for us. Consider reading John 17 again and really pondering His love for you and the blessedness of what it means to truly be a Christian.

May we sincerely find ourselves desiring Him, and to be One with Him, as much as He desires to be ONE with us.