1. God Wants to be in a Loving, Safe, and Healthy Relationship with You
If you happen to come from a religious background where God was perceived as this distant, harsh, or judgmental being, then it might surprise you that the #1 thing that God actually wants from us is relationship.
God didn’t create us because He was bored. Or because He wanted some minions. (If He wanted minions, we wouldn’t have free will.)
No, He created us for relationship. With each other, but also with Him.
And not just any type of relationship - a loving, safe, healthy one. The kind a lot of you here may have been dreaming of for a long, long time.
The problem arises, though, when God’s character isn’t correctly known or taught. This is why it’s so important to truly understand who He is. Because until you do, the incorrect information (coupled with life experience and attacks of the enemy) can paint a very inaccurate picture of God.
And the longer you have that inaccurate picture, the harder it will be to move closer to God. How can you when you don’t know who He really is? Which means you won’t feel safe opening your heart to Him, listening to Him, or trusting Him?
I’m not saying this to place blame. I’m saying this to drive home the point that the #1 thing God desires from you is the chance to really, truly love as only He can.
Note: Feel free to check out Episodes #116 and #130 if you want to dig deeper into how exactly God wants to love you.
2. God Wants YOU Just the Way You Are
Firstly, nowhere in the Bible does God say, “I require perfection.”
If that was the case, the Bible as we know it wouldn’t exist. Since the Fall in the Garden of Eden, when sin entered the world, humans have had no hope (on their own) of being perfect or sinless.
The entire Bible is about God loving, protecting, guiding, and being faithful to His people who are sinful, imperfect, and works in progress.
In addition, if God had required humans to find their way back to perfection (which we technically couldn’t do anyway), He wouldn’t have sent Jesus - His one and only Son - to die in our place for our sins.
As a side note, I would also add that the world’s idea of what “perfection” or “good enough” should be is consistently unrealistic and constantly changing.
This is true regarding religious ideas of perfection as well as cultural ones.
As women, we are very acquainted with this, right? The unrealistic ideals of beauty. How we should dress, act, etc.
Secondly, in relation to that, none of those outside things matter to God.
He is much more concerned with what’s going on inside of us. Meaning, our heart posture and who we are as a person.
1 Samuel 16:7 (NLT) says: But the Lord said to Samuel, “Don’t judge by his appearance or height, for I have rejected him. The Lord doesn’t see things the way you see them. People judge by outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”
Proverbs 21:2 (NLT) says: “People may be right in their own eyes, but the Lord examines their heart.”
God cares about who you are inside above all else. (Not that He also doesn’t care about your physical health and well-being, etc.)
And He doesn’t require you to be perfect inside, either. If you’re here today because you long to know God and connect with Him, that means more to God than all the perfection in the world.
Remember, His biggest desire is to be in a relationship with you. Because He created you and He loves you beyond measure.
Ephesians 3:18-19 (NLT) says: “And may you have the power to understand, as all God’s people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God.”
3. God Wants You to Know Him for Who He Truly Is
God longs to be known by you. Sounds crazy, but it’s true!
After all, that’s part of being in a relationship right? It’s about two parties getting to know each other and going through life together.
But more than that, it’s about God loving us so much that He wants us to be with Him eternally.
John 17:3 (NLT) says, “And this is the way to have eternal life—to know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, the one you sent to earth.”
How do we get that eternal life with God? By understanding who God is; why He sent Jesus to die on the cross; and our hearts being open to accepting that gift.
John 14:6 (NLT) says: Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.”
It’s extremely important to God that you know who He really is. That way, you can truly understand that, above all else, He wants a real relationship with you; that He loves you just the way you are (no matter what you may think of yourself and your life right now); and that you are loved, you are seen, and you are meant for more.
Jeremiah 29:11 (NLT) says: “For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.”
Friend, if you leave here with anything, leave with this: That God’s greatest desire is for you to get to know Him; His love for you; and His yearning to spend eternity with you.
Because whatever you’ve been told or taught, God already considers you “good enough.” It’s not about jumping through hoops, but doing what you’re already doing by being here - which is bravely stepping out to seek and find legit biblical knowledge about who God really is.
