When you watch a movie nowadays, even the sci-fi and action movies have romantic elements in them. You will always find a good portion of women gushing over a romantic chick flick. And in most of these movies, the man pursues the woman as if his life depends on it. For example, what woman wouldn't want a man to walk through her front door and say "You complete me" just like Tom Cruise in Jerry McGuire? It was this simple but beautiful statement that held so much meaning! It says "please love me, my heart can't survive if you leave" or "please don't throw away everything we have together!" This is exactly how God sees us! We may not see it or know it, but God NEEDS us!
When you read the story of Adam and Eve in the bible, it talks about them walking in the garden with God. What not many people realize is that God didn't create us to so he could watch us destroy ourselves. God created us because he wanted someone to love and someone who would love him in return. This brings to mind the quote from a movie: "The greatest thing you'll ever learn is just to love and be loved in return." When God created Adam and Eve, he had that special relationship that he longed for that was perfect and unblemished. That is also why God created Eve for Adam. Because in the same way that God was lonely, he knew it would benefit Adam to have that special someone in his life.
Now, this part of every relationship is inevitable. We messed up! We fought God. This is where the need for God to be pursued came into play. God instructed Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of The Knowledge of Good and Evil. When you think about it and read between the lines, this is what God was saying: "Please, for the sake of our relationship, don't take of something that will part me from you! I want you too much!" When you read the bible, there are many scriptures that refer to God's need for us to love him. Matthew 22:37-38 says, Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment." In Jeremiah 29:13 it says: You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. Just as so many of us desire relationships that are strong and true, God desires the same with us! I recently read in a really good book that a woman's strong desire for meaningful relationships are a testament to the desire and love that God has for us since we are created in the image of God. We always see God as a ruler and King and Father. It isn't common for people to see God as vulnerable, desperate, or in need. In this fallen world where every day brings hardship, we are a selfish people who understand that we need God. However, do we ever stop to think that God needs us just as much as we need him? Another of the commandments says that we shall have no other gods before Him (Exodus 20:3). I know that part of this is because he is the one true God. It's not just that though. God is jealous of anyone or anything that comes between Him and us! Any and every human knows what jealousy is! When you were young, it was jealousy over someone having a better toy than you. When you reached teenage years, it was jealousy over who was more popular that you. But I am a firm believer that there is no stronger jealousy than that of someone who is jealous of love. In 1 Corinthians 13:13 it talks about faith, hope, and love. But it makes it clear that the greatest is love. So when God sees that something or someone else is capturing our full attention, he gets jealous because he wants us to love him above all else. In 1 John 4:19 it says, We love because he first loved us. God is our first love. Imagine...if we hadn't fallen into sin, our only purpose would be loving God. We would still live in perfect harmony with God. God would have no reason to be jealous of us because we never would have known what idols were, or what it even meant to be jealous because God's love is perfect.
So if man is made in God's image and God stated that it is not good for man to be alone, what else is there to conclude that God doesn't want to be alone either. A perfect example to use in this case is Martha and Mary. God told Martha that Mary had the right idea. Mary was spending time with God. While I'm sure Martha's intentions were honorable, God was not concerned with place settings at the dining table or what type of meal he was going to eat. he simply wanted to spend time with them.
So here's your mission: The next you go to your "prayer closet" and are just spending time with God, take some time to just "listen." Ask him if there is anything that he might like to share with you. Understand that love is not a one-sided thing. God needs us to love him just as much as we need him to love us.
