The Seed Blog; Fatal Attraction

The majority of the sincerest, believing, devoted Christians are not truly bringing God joy and pleasure in their lives today. When we hear this, we almost feel defeated and hopeless, wondering how much more do you need to do to make Him happy? Or, you instantly go to self-condemnation in your mind, thinking, “You don’t have to tell me how much I mess up, or how bad I am. I already know, thank you very much.” But the answer is so much simpler than this, and so much more wonderful and powerful in what it says about our God, as though God Himself, were saying it to you now. Your Christian life—your choice to believe in, and follow Christ—is not about living better than you did before. It’s not about sinning less and doing more for Him. It’s not about struggling to keep His commands; it’s not even mainly about trusting that His sacrifice is all that can save you—it’s about seeing His unfathomable love for you and being so moved by His pure love and selfless pursuit of you; that you are broken by His dedication and attraction, blown away by the worth and joy He has placed in you. And in turn, accepting it so deeply that you so sincerely love Him back. Nothing on earth is more important than having His presence in your life, than wanting to be the source of His joy and pleasure, than being close with Him, no matter the cost: Mark 12:28-30.

God could have done things so very differently if all He wanted from us was better conduct or complete obedience. He could easily force these things on His entire Creation, or just started over when we blew it. But having our hearts freely given to Him, becoming one with us intimately was worth everything He had to give; was worth all the pain and destruction brought to His Kingdom. His desire to win our real love for him is so precious to Him that He was willing to die just to simply give you the opportunity to love Him back. Nothing you’ve done wrong, no distance you could run from Him, will ever cause Him to stop pursuing you. Don’t let the familiarity with these passages take away the impact of what they say about God’s heart for you: Luke 15:1-10. Moses probably drew closer to God than anyone in his time; closer than most men or women draw to God in all times. Listen to just why Moses was so close to God. Moses had given up his entire life to God, lost everything he had, and spent years of hardship to lead them out of slavery and into freedom: Exodus 33:2-3. Moses’ refusal to receive any blessing without God’s Presence in his life as well changed the course of everything and God chose to stay with Moses and his people because of the passion this one man had for His Presence above all else. Because this is God’s Greatest Desire: to be wanted and sought after with the same crazy love He shows for us: Exodus 33:17-18. But Moses did not even want to stop there; he didn’t just want God with him, he wanted more of God: Exodus 33:18. Kabad. God allowed Moses to see His goodness; to see His Presence in a very special and intimate way.
So many of us are apathetic in our walk with Christ. We appreciate His kindness; we want His Salvation; we want His blessings, but we honestly show no signs of wanting a better, deeper relationship. We have no interest in actually knowing Him better or spending time with Him—we simply want His Inheritance—and it breaks His heart as surely as it would ours. We all need to see the reality, the fullness, the literal sense in which we are loved by Him: Ephesians 3:17-19. Knowing His love in reality is the key to being full of His presence. Of all the things He could have used, with which to compare our relationship to Him, what did He use from the earliest pages of Scriptures: Hosea 2:16, 19-20; Isaiah 54:5; 2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:31-32. If we have things in our life which have pushed us beyond our limits, taken us to despair and feelings of hopelessness, it is because He has not become that everything to us; He has not become so special to us that even in the hardest times—as long as we have Him, we’ll be okay together. This is His heart’s desire for how we would see Him—not just faith in what He can do, but faith in Him. When we doubt Him, or hold Him at fault in tough times, the Truth of Who He was to us all along simply comes out. Yada. This is the relationship God died to have with us. He died not only to save our souls, but to become one with our very souls; to walk in our lives with us, share everything we experience together, suffer through hard times as one. He wants to be the One you come home to and know everything will be alright because we have Him, and we know we will always be accepted and carried by His crazy love for us. A close spouse not only knows our ways and our reactions to many things, they know our very character and heart behind those ways because we have shared our emotions, secrets, intimacy, desires, motivations, fears. This is what God wants from us; to share everything with Him and to know Him back that intimately. This is our reason for existence and most of us are missing it. He wants you to see the reality of how you are loved: listen to how hard He has worked to show you. Have you ever made a gift for someone, or a picture, or write a song? And every detail was painstakingly taken to please them? God has done this is every facet of creation for you. Yet, He’s willing to destroy it all and start over to show His Love for you, again. He is willing to take the blame (fall) for your wrongs; to make you free to stay by His side. He was willing to lose His great name, His Kingdom, His power, His throne, His very life—to be hated, lied about, tortured, naked in front of a crowd, have His very skin ripped from His body violently—to secure your place by His side. He is willing and wanting to walk every step of your life by your side, sharing all your pains and troubles, standing by you in your failures, being your everything. He didn’t want to show you His love in His words only, so He became the living, breathing, walking Word to bring His love to life: John 1:14. All this to simply win your love and steal your heart so that He can bless you even deeper as you share life together. That’s my Jesus; that’s your Jesus.
Here is how we can be the Bride of His dreams—not simply by acting better or doing more on our own—but in letting Him be the One we want to impress; letting Him be the One we want to share with; put first above all others; worry about offending; come home to and be comforted by. He wants us to see Him in wonder and love in the thunderstorm we watch from the porch; hear Him in the crickets at dusk; feel Him in the warmth of a summer breeze or sunny day; be amazed by His incredible creatures all around us; in the joy and love we share with our precious pets. He wants us to live in His ways just to please Him; be unashamed to call Him ours in front of a mocking world; seek and search through His Word to really know Him better—not because we are supposed to. He wants us to desire Him now, with all we have—not just want His inheritance one day. The greatest thing we can ever comprehend in all our experiences and education is that we are truly loved with an overwhelming, fatal attraction from One willing to give His Life to be by our side, and give Him that same love in return.
This is accepting Christ; this is the reason for your existence. In 100years, we’ll all be gone, and someone else will have your house, your car, and your money. In 150years almost all of your great achievements—all you struggled to gain and impress others with—will not even be remembered; nor will your existence even be thought of. But the One Who made you—died for you—the One Who wants to walk by your side—will still be with you even then. Don’t’ you think He is worthy of your all right now? Let’s stop living for His inheritance and show Jesus Christ that we want none of this world unless He will go with us. Let’s stop living a “Christian Life” and begin living in Him with every breath of our lives. This is what He died for: John 17:3. the greatest gift you can give Jesus: is to really grasp just how real and unbelievable His love really is for you and begin to walk closer with Him than anyone in your life. If you are not doing that as a Christian, you are missing everything He died to have with you. Let’s all return to Him today with everything we have.