The Bible makes it clear that God-creator, almighty, sovereign, eternal and self-sustaining being wants relationship with us, His creation.  From Genesis to Revelation we can see God’s will for mankind and it all begins and is sustained by relationship-knowing Him.

In the book of Genesis, we see that we were created in the image and likeness of God.  Many people don’t recognize the significance of this!  The purpose for the creation of mankind was to be God’s family, His children.  God talks with Adam giving him purpose in the Garden and blesses all of mankind.  He continues to commune with Adam and Eve and their descendants.  Throughout Scripture, Old and New Testament, Scripture tells us that God wants to dwell among His people, will never forsake us, and that He loves us!!  In the book of Revelation, the apostle John records that God will live among us throughout eternity.

• Genesis 1:26 (NIV) Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.”
• Revelation 21:3 (NIV) And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God.

God’s love for us, His greatest motive.
Jesus tells us that it was God’s love that motivated Him to save us.  And in the book of Romans, the apostle Paul makes the point that God did this for us while we were still sinners, demonstrating God’s love for us all along.

• John 3:16 (AMP) “For God so [greatly] loved and dearly prized the world, that He [even] gave His [One and] only begotten Son, so that whoever believes and trusts in Him [as Savior] shall not perish, but have eternal life.
• Romans 5:8 (AMP) But God clearly shows and proves His own love for us, by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

God wants us to know Him and to know His love for us.
His love and longing for us is shown all throughout the Bible.  In the Old Testament, He always drew His children back to Him and now that the Holy Spirit has been given to believers, He wants us to continually be filled with His presence.  Because of His love for us, we can have confidence in His presence.

• John 17:3 (AMP) Now this is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true [supreme and sovereign] God, and [in the same manner know] Jesus [as the] Christ whom You have sent.
• Ephesians 3:19 (AMP) and [that you may come] to know [practically, through personal experience] the love of Christ which far surpasses [mere] knowledge [without experience], that you may be filled up [throughout your being] to all the fullness of God [so that you may have the richest experience of God’s presence in your lives, completely filled and flooded with God Himself].

God wants to have a personal relationship with us, His children!
God has, through Jesus, reconciled us back to Himself, and now wants us to choose to be reconciled back to Him.

• Romans 8:14 (AMP) For all who are led by God’s Spirit are God’s children.
• 2 Corinthians 6:18 (AMP) And I will be a Father to you, And you will be My sons and daughters,” Says the Lord Almighty.

God speaks to us and hears us when we speak to Him.
Communion with God is so important.  We are able to stay in constant fellowship with our Father God; talking to Him and listening to Him speak to us.

• John 10:27 (AMP) The sheep that are My own hear My voice and listen to Me; I know them, and they follow Me.
• 1 John 5:15 (AMP) And if we know [for a fact, as indeed we do] that He hears and listens to us in whatever we ask, we [also] know [with settled and absolute knowledge] that we have [granted to us] the requests which we have asked from Him.
• Jeremiah 29:12-14 (ESV) Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the Lord. 

Out of this relationship, He reveals Himself to us.
He wants us to experience His presence, know His will and share Himself with us.  We come to intimately know Him.

• Philippians 3:10  (AMP) And this, so that I may know Him [experientially, becoming more thoroughly acquainted with Him, understanding the remarkable wonders of His Person more completely] and [in that same way experience] the power of His resurrection [which overflows and is active in believers], and [that I may share] the fellowship of His sufferings, by being continually conformed [inwardly into His likeness even] to His death [dying as He did];”
• Colossians 1:9-10 (AMPC) For this reason we also, from the day we heard of it, have not ceased to pray and make [special] request for you, [asking] that you may be filled with the full (deep and clear) knowledge of His will in all spiritual wisdom [in comprehensive insight into the ways and purposes of God] and in understanding and discernment of spiritual things…..desiring to please Him in all things, bearing fruit in every good work and steadily growing and increasing in and by the knowledge of God [with fuller, deeper, and clearer insight, acquaintance, and recognition].

He blesses us.
Out of this relationship, God desires to demonstrate His love by showing His goodness towards us.

• 2 Chronicles 16:9 (AMPC) For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show Himself strong in behalf of those whose hearts (not actions) are blameless toward Him. (parentheses mine)
• 1 Corinthians 2:12 (NKJV) Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.

See my article, “The Blessing” for more on what God has given to us.He transforms us into the image of Jesus Christ, His son.
The result of having an intimate relationship with God is that we progressively become more and more like our Father, reflecting Jesus in our lives and to others.

• Romans 8:29 (AMPC) For those whom He foreknew [of whom He was] aware and loved beforehand], He also destined from the beginning [foreordaining them] to be molded into the image of His Son [and share inwardly His likeness], that He might become the firstborn among many brethren.
• 2 Corinthians 3:18 (AMP) And we all, with unveiled face, continually seeing as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are progressively being transformed into His image from [one degree of] glory to [even more] glory, which comes from the Lord, [who is] the Spirit.

Relationship with God was God’s idea in the beginning and has always been His desire and plan for humanity.  God did it so He can have His family!  Now we can have an intimate personal relationship in which we can experience the fullness of God through our mutual love relationship.  We need to make our relationship with our Father a priority just as we do any relationship we value.  We can trust in Him because He first sought after us.  Amen 

• 1 John 4:19 (AMPC) We love Him, because He first loved us.
• James 4:8 (NKJV) Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.
• Ephesians 3:17-20 (NIV) …And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord’s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge–that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.
• 1 John 4:16 (NKJV) And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.

To understand how you can make your relationship with God a greater priority, read my article on “Making God First.”