Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!-Deuteronomy 5:29
Have you ever stopped to consider what God wants? It’s easy for us to consider such things: we all probably have a miles long-wish list! Yet exploring the scriptures, I’m stricken by statements made by God, such as in Deuteronomy 5:29. God desires that His people would always have a heart to do His will! Why, though? Consider the Garden of Eden: God met with Adam face to face and blessed Him, giving Him rulership of the earth. God walked with Adam in the Garden. God met with Abraham as a friend. God wrestled with Jacob. God walked with the three exiles in Daniel as they went through the furnace. God sent His Son who walked as one of us and died for us. I think it's safe to say God's desire is to be with His creation.
Have you stopped to consider that lately? We are in love with the blessings of God (I’m not a Health and Wealth gospel preacher, as I believe such a myth is patently false), but are we in love with the God who greatly desires us? God loves us so much that He made both the first and final sacrifices on our behalf: He made Adam and Eve clothing of animals skins (Genesis 3), and He sent His Son, who went willingly and lived in perfect obedience in every way, to die in our place. God holds nothing back from us, to restore us to Himself, not even the life of His own Son. God desires to walk with us, and desires in us Holiness that we may be able to bear His presence. We, in and of ourselves cannot be Holy, but it is by Jesus’ sacrifice and the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit that we are being made Holy, so that now, as we experience it in part, when we are in His presence we will be made fully mature, able to abide and dwell with Him forever, where there is no more separation.
Revelation 21:1
Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”
And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” And he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give from the spring of the water of life without payment. The one who conquers will have this heritage, and I will be his God and he will be my son. But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”
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