How to Know What God Actually Wants from Us
Read of creation, of our wrestle for power and mistrust of God, of God’s consistent heart-cry for us to know Him and be near Him, and you’ll get to the end of the Old Testament tender from the ways we’ve torn God’s heart, still are tearing God’s heart.
You’ll end in First and Second Chronicles, which aren’t at the end the way the pages turn but bring you full circle. These books read like the jist of the story at rapid speed. Through them, you discover God is:
Blessing Extender and Ready Counsel,
Brag-Worthy Name, and
Beauty Threaded Through.
He’s Accompanying Presence,
Generous Orchestrator,
Always Victorious,
Consistent Devotion,
and Cannot Be Contained.
You list more names to accompany truths of His nature you’re overturning as you read:
Courage-Building Withness
Delighter in Found Faith
Nearby Holiness
Anticipated Appearance
Unsurpassed Wisdom
Fresh Encounter
Praised Unifier
“Always Been” (quoted from 2 Chron. 6:5, The Voice)
Attentive Communicator
Reverenced Name
Consuming Glory
Honorer of Honest Prayers
Compassionate Listener
Matchless Splendor
Our Beloved
Lenient Grace
Strengthening Peace
In-Kind Responder
Attack Diverter
Cannot Be Bribed
Rescuing Answer
Rewarder of Obedience
Covenant Renewer
You stop at 2 Chronicles 29:11, feeling a bit like you just stepped onto holy ground. This verse is a literal description of what God desires from us:
Now that we have made this commitment, we must not abandon the Eternal, who expects us to be in His presence, serve Him, minister on His behalf to others, and burn incense continually.
– The Voice
Not only does God want to be with us, He wants us to be with Him. His expectation means His invitation is always open:
Join me where I am.
Tuck in where I can protect you.
Show me your face.
Gift me your voice. It’s dear to Me.
Lest we forget that we’re welcome, that we have His ear, His full attention, His undistracted heart, the rest of the list hinges on our proximity to Him.
The Ripple-Effect of Ready Access to God
The more time we spend next to Him, the more attune we become to God’s heart desires, His preferences, His non-negotiables. We discern what blesses Him: sincerity and humility, thanks and trust, unashamed adoration and full devotion. We pray with knowledge of what makes Him weep and what makes His eyes widen with laughter.
In His presence, our insecurity and excuses melt away. Here in His welcome embrace, we can breathe freely. We’re wanted. Deeply seen. Fully accepted.
We don’t have to be more or less of anything. Our presence alone blesses Him.
I’m sitting with that as I ponder how we best serve God and minister to the people in front of us on His behalf.
What if both are simply the overflow of being near Him: adopting His deep passion for justice, leaning into His invitation to covenant relationship, and joining His mission to fill the earth with His glory?
What if giving God what He desires is more rest than it is effort? A relaxing into who we were meant to be: reflections of Jesus.
When we linger in the weighty glory emanating from our Lord, we can’t contain our praise. When we witness His spilled tears, we respond in kind. And when we keep the proximity tight, we automatically begin to copy Christ.
In order to serve God as He deserves, in order to love as He loves, we have to enjoy His company. Because before the things God is stirring and shaping in us can spill over and begin to ripple, we must be saturated in His presence. What fills us overflows from us.
Proximate, Intimate, Never-Stopping Conversation
Like the rest of the list of what God desires from us, His request that we “burn incense continually” has everything to do with proximity. He rescues and guides us because He’s always moving toward us. His generation-spanning desire is to live amongst us. He wants to be close to us.
The purpose of incense, we learn in Exodus 20:42-43, is to invite continual conversation. It reads like this is The Voice:
From generation to generation, the ritual of the burnt offering is to begin daily at the entrance of the congregation tent in My presence. I will meet with you and talk with you there. I will meet with My people Israel there, for My glory will make that place sacred.
What God’s heart yearns for is proximate, intimate, never-stopping conversation with us. He longs to erase the distance between us so there are no barriers to communication, no hindrances to us trusting and revering Him.
Not surprising is that prayer is like incense to God (Revelation 5:8). King David makes the same reference in Psalm 141:2: “Consider my prayer as an offering of incense that rises before You” (The Voice).
If prayer is symbolic of incense, God’s request of us is unceasing prayer–the unforced kind that stems from staying in His presence. There’s room for our most-honest questions, for outpouring of adoration, for silence as we simply listen. It’s not all us talking, or only Him, but a shared camaraderie.
Conversation brings us closer, which is why it matters so much to God. Not only does God want to be with us, He wants us to be with Him.
Let’s pray.
God, You say our presence blesses You. That what You actually, deeply desire is us near You.
May we respond with joy to Your invitation to proximity so our love and our work and our words overflow from our time in Your presence.
* I’m taking Mary Demuth’s 90-Day Bible Reading Challenge, searching for names of God as I read like it’s some sort of treasure hunt. Never though to look for God in this way until I began journaling through Ann Voskamp’s Sacred Prayer.
Just a friend over here in your corner,
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