God Desires A Relationship With You

Since creation, God’s desire has been for us to live in fellowship with Him.  When God created Adam, “He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils”.  He was up close and personal at creation and continued to be with Adam and Eve while in the Garden of Eden.  When God told Adam to not eat from the tree of knowledge, it was not to withhold something from him, but to protect their intimate relationship.  God asked this of Adam because He knew eating of that fruit would result in broken fellowship.  With that first bite, sin separated man from God.  Since then, God has pursued His people to restore that same intimacy with them. 

Throughout the Old Testament, God continued to meet with His people.  Some were commissioned by God to proclaim His truths to His people, the Israelites.  When God met with Moses, to give him The Ten Commandments, it wasn't to create religion with a list of rules, but to give guidelines that protect and preserve relationships.  Even with these guidelines in place, the Israelites continued in a cycle of rebellion and repentance, while God continued to seek restoration.  

God often called prophets to live out what He wanted His people to understand. As soon as God met with Hosea, He tells him to marry and love Gomer, a promiscuous woman, knowing she would be unfaithful.  God then refers to Israel as an adulterous woman and rebukes her unfaithfulness because she sought other things over God and neglected His provision.  God says that He will expose her promiscuous ways and remove the things she put before Him.  He then says “I will allure her; I will lead her into the wilderness, and speak tenderly to her.”…“you will call me ‘my husband’;  you will no longer call me ‘my master.’”. There, in the wilderness, with all distractions removed, God will promise her hope and safety. Instead of punishment, He pursues reconciliation and restoration.

What God says next, reveals His unrelenting desire for fellowship with His people … 

He continues to meet us where we are, He lovingly lures us into the wilderness, away from the things that come before Him, and He speaks tenderly to us.  Through His mercy and truth He pursues you and me so that we can know Him and experience His steadfast love.  He is committed to restoring the intimate and complete relationship that we can only have with Him.  

 

I encourage you to …

• get to know Him more. Study His Word, meet with Him, talk with Him, listen to Him, and create that intimate relationship with the One that created you. 
• identify things you put before God. Ask for forgiveness, thank Him for His grace, and ask for His help in putting Him first. 
• take time to read through the book of Hosea. See how He pursues a relationship with His people and with you. 

 

- Aimey