Notes from this week's podcast: What Is God After?

We see a lot of restlessness, anxiousness, uncertainty, despair. Our hearts remain fundamentally unsettled, left longing. Why is that? I maintain that it's because we have totally misunderstood what life is actually all about. 

From what we know in Genesis, we know that God looked out into the void and spoke creation into existence. What was He after? Was He performing a powerful, cosmetic demonstration? No. He was designing something very specific, very creative to Him. God desired a relationship. He was creating all of this to be in a relationship with His created beings that would reflect Him. 

We were created in the image of God. 

Life requires a relationship with the Creator to function because Himself is life. He's the source of our life. 

Satan doesn't just simply want to inconvenience your life. He wants to sever your relationship with God. 

• Example of Job

The enemy uses independence and isolation and to convince you that you can govern your own existence. It's an ambush, designed to destroy your heart. 

So what's required? Salvation. That the relationship between man and God be restored. Salvation is coming back to God, redeeming man from his ruined state of being, and reconciling man back to God, into a living, intimate relationship.

It means stepping out of your rebellion and you come back to God, back into that righteous alignment with the King of kings -- back into a right relationship, which is what God is after. He always has been and even today.

So, once we come back into that right relationship with Him, what did God do to hold us in that relationship? He gave commands.

• Example of Adam & Eve
• Example of the Israelites (God gives them the 10 Commandments)
• Example of the Disciples (God gives them the "Great Commission") 

The commands were given to hold, remain in a relationship with God. They guide our relationship so that we have this fellowship. 

It's God's design to guard our communion with Him. 

The first table of commands command total allegiance -- no other god but God. 

God is after that intimate relationship and, in those commands, He guarded it. 

In the next six commands, it's about a righteous relationship with our neighbor, the people around us. 

 The root sickness in our nation is that we've abandoned God. 

Our survival requires revival -- national repentance. Revival is simply coming back into an intimate relationship with God, which is what God was after from the beginning of time, and He's after it today.

Ponder this today: Are you seeking God's hand simply for what He can give you? Or are you seeking His face because He alone is worthy?  -- worthy of the relationship He created you for

You know what it requires -- and this will take some pondering for all of us to really think about what we're pursuing, what life is all about, where we find ourselves -- those are just flags that are waving for us to come back to Him, the original intent of life.

We've got to lay down self-absorption. We've got to throw off the lies, that we belong to ourselves. We must return to Christ by faith and surrender our lives to the absolute lordship of Jesus.  

Would you make this a matter of personal prayer? For God to show you where you really are in your relationship with Him and listen to God 

Scripture for further study: Luke 10:27, Matthew 6:33, Deuteronomy 6:5