Follow Up to last post.

After reading my last post John ask the question (with all sincerity) - By saying that God did all this to be with me, are we making much of ourselves rather than much of God. We believe that God created us for His glory so I understand completely why He would ask that. This very question is part of the reason why the epiphany that I had today was so profound to me.
See before God created anything He was perfect and complete. To have been lacking in anything would not make Him the God of the Bible. This means He did not need us to be glorified, He did not need us to love Him, He did not need us for any reason. But He is a loving God - abounding in love and He wanted to share this love. He created a people to love because He wanted to. And not only did He create us to love us He put a deep longing within us to be loved - wooed (especially women). This is that hole that we try to fill with so many things. But I think our culture - and the feminist movement has taught us to ignore this longing. In order to be "strong women" we don't need to need from another. This very much is true for men too but it plays out in a little different way. So we tell ourselves that that warm and gooey feeling we experience when we read a good love story (Twilight books for me) or watch a good romantic movie is not achievable in reality and we push it down and/or fill it with other things.
For me today, that longing became a reality because I saw God in a different light. He is perfect and lacking for nothing and yet He reached out through time - orchestrating events in such a way to redeem my life and make me His bride.
This in no way diminishes God's glory - in fact for me it makes it greater. John Piper says that "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him" What is more satisfying than to know that you are completely loved and adored, cherished and fought for, just the way you are? Finding that satisfaction in Him negates my wanting from others and makes me want to rest in Him, to be with Him and to burst at the seams telling others about Him and this great love.
Paul says that God's love compels him (not his desire to bring God glory). I think that desire is birthed out of being loved by the Father. In Romans Paul affirms us that nothing can separate us from the love of God. Throughout the Scriptures, God's love and compassion and kindness is what leads to repentance. He looks at His people and has compassion on them. He loves us!!!!!
I think that we live in a action world. We are told "get up and do" and this work ethic has tainted our view of God. We feel worthless and unloveable if we aren't doing what we know to do, we don't think people will love us if we don't perform for them. This is the same filter that we see God. Tainted!!!!
We bring NOTHING to the table. We are not needed to advance the gospel (Romans 1 confirms that). We are not needed to love God, to show others the love of God. But God knew that if we truly experienced this life altering love affair that He longs for us to know - that we could not help but share it with the world. We could love others fully because we don't need anything from them because our God shaped hole (that He created for Him to fill) is full and overflowing.
Him loving me and reaching through time and history to redeem me to Himself makes EVERYTHING of Him in my eyes and I hope yours as well.