What is it that God wants from you?

I haven't been able to do much reading lately. But now that I'm taking a break from language school to study for my Spanish driver's license, I have a little more time to read. I just started reading this book a couple of days ago and I love it. It is basically a book for women, but I think men would gain a great deal from reading it as well. I wanted to share a portion from my reading today because it so captured me.

What is it that God wants from you? He wants the same thing that you want. He wants to be loved. He wants to be known as only lovers can know each other. He wants intimacy with you. Yes, yes, he wants your obedience, but only when it flows out of a heart filled with love for him. "Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me." (John 14:21) Following hard after Jesus is the heart's natural response when it has been captured and has fallen deeply in love with him...God wants to live this life together with you, to share in your days and decisions, your desires and disappointments. He wants intimacy with you in the midst of the madness and mundane, the meetings and memos, the laundry and lists, the carpools and conversation and projects and pain. He wants to pour his love into your heart and he longs to have you pour yours into his. He wants your deep heart, that center place within that is the truest you. He is not interested in intmacy with the woman you think you are supposed to be. He wants intimacy with the real you...The culture of women in the church today is crippled by some very pervasive lies. "To be spiritual is to be busy. To be spiritual is to be disciplined. To be spirtual is to be dutiful. No, to be spiritual is to be in a Romance with God. The desire to be romanced lies deep in the heart of every woman. It is for such that you were made. And you are romanced, and ever will be.

I began this kind of journey with the Lord a few years ago. I still have a lot to learn, but the freedom there is in really believing that God loves me just the way I am, that He created me this way and that He cherishes what He has created, has made a huge difference in the way I look at God and my ministry and my relationships with others. I pray that you, too, will be able to truly believe that God loves you with a deep, passionate love and that He looks forward to spending time with you.