The Goal of God's Desire

God’s deepest desire has always been to be with us.

The whole biblical storyline can be summed up in this desire. God created us to be with us, to enjoy us in the cool of the garden, but we chose to go our own way and leave His presence. The rest of the story is about a lovesick God who overcame every obstacle to be with us again. The Temple is a place where God made a way to be with the people of Israel. The prophets are God’s means of calling people back to a right relationship with Himself. Jesus is Emmanuel — God with us — who dealt with that evil force that separates us from God once and for all — sin — so that we can be new Temples, where God Himself can live on the inside of us. Then, at the end of the story, we get to be with Him forever and see His face forever.

This plan is summed up by Paul in Ephesians 1:

The plan the whole time is that we would be with God and that God would be with us. And, Ephesians tells us, it’s His good pleasure to do this. It brings Him joy!

And yet many of us live asleep to this storyline, unaware of a God who has wooed us, romanced us, and is passionately committed to removing every obstacle that might keep us from Him.

Prayer is the first step to becoming awake again to the story in which we find ourselves. Prayer is as simple as looking at God to find that He is already looking at us. Prayer is falling in love with a God who is already lavishly in love with us.

In the early stages, building a prayer life is primarily about being overcome by the lavish love of God, and experiencing the depths to which He loves us.

But as we mature in prayer, we begin to become more and more fascinated with the One who has wooed us. What is He like? What does He want?

Prayer begins with discovering that we are loved by God. But prayer matures when we discover what God loves. Any mature relationship requires an increase in sacrifice for the sake of the Other, and prayer is no different. As we grow in our knowledge of God, we become relationally in touch with what He cares about, His likes and dislikes, what brings Him pleasure, and what makes Him cry. In other words, we get to know a real Person with a real Personality.

And, we begin to discover (much to our surprise) that the deepest longing in God’s heart is to be with us in His fullness. This has been the longing from Genesis to Revelation, from the moment of creation to now.

And I should note that God in His fullness implies a world absent of everything that God is not. God in His fullness means that our hearts are fully in love with Him and aligned with His will, and therefore implies a world without injustice, poverty, sickness, pain, torment, depression, and anxiety. God in His fullness is the answer to every longing in the human heart, and every pain that we experience. Or, in the words of Jesus, it is His kingdom come and His will done.

And God is looking for friends who want what He wants — to create places and spaces where God can be with us.


This desire finds its expression in the life of David who prays in Psalm 132 in the language of a “dwelling place” or a “resting place”:

I actually wrote this verse on a Post-it note and stuck it on the wall of my room as a reminder to pray when I was 16 years old. If I had gone a whole day without remembering to make space for God through a set-aside time of prayer, that post-it note would serve as a reminder for me to take a moment, get on my knees, and seek God.

Little did I know I was making a serious vow with God! And all these years later, I have found that He is deeply serious about establishing His dwelling place, or resting place, on earth, starting in me and that He is looking for ones who will take this desire seriously.

In fact, this desire of David, this vow that he makes, so moves God’s heart that this is the premise upon which God promises to send the Messiah through David’s lineage (v. 11). This is wild! This oath matters to God so much that it changes the trajectory of salvation history! Peter references this vow in his Pentecost sermon in Acts 2:30, and Steven also mentions the key role that this vow plays in the storyline in Acts 7:46. Clearly, for the early church, this vow marked a significant moment in the Gospel storyline.

I think God is still calling people to make Psalm 132 vows today. Would we give Him what He wants? Will we look back at Him? Will we cultivate communities, families, lives, places, and churches that look in His eyes? That care about what He cares for? That make space for God?

Pray this today:

God, would You help me to want what You want? Would you make me a resting place for You? Would you make my family a resting place for you? Would you make my community and church a resting place for you? Would you make my city a resting place for You?

What would it look for you like to make space for God today?