God's heart is for every person on earth to have an intimate relationship with Him.
He sent Jesus as a Minister of Reconciliation, reconciling the prodigal sons and daughters to their Father after the Fall of Man (Colossians 1:19-20). God also gave us the Holy Spirit in order for there to be direct communication between us and Him (John 16:13-14).
This communication allows us to hear God's heart for us, but also allows us to chat to our Dad, telling Him all that is on our mind.
Satan wants to destroy this communication by planting doubts in our minds. When God says we are forgiven, Satan asks, "Are you really forgiven?" When God tells us we are loved, Satan retaliates by enquiring, "Are you sure about that?" When God speaks in Genesis 2:16-17, Satan confuses Eve by asking, "Did God really say that?"
We see that Satan uses the same tactics that he used in biblical times to make us doubt God's word. By questioning what God has said, he targets our weaknesses and leads us to sin. When we sin, it is our natural instinct to hide, as we can see in Genesis 3:7.
Our first impulse is to cover our iniquities, as Adam and Eve did by hiding and sowing fig leaves together. We rely on our own strengths and abilities to camouflage our wrongdoings, despite the fact that God is omnipresent and omniscient. God then came and replaced their fig leaves with more durable animal skins (Genesis 3:21). This just proves that God's way is always better than our way.
God knew Adam and Eve had sinned - He knew they had directly disobeyed Him, even before He spoke to them. His first reaction was not to cast down bolts of fire from the sky or to condemn them to the deepest pit in Hell.
No.
God came down to meet them at their level - He did not stay far from them, He came to the Garden. The first words He said were not angry or reprimanding. He simply asked them, "Where are you?" (Genesis 3:9). He knew where they were, but He was giving them an opportunity to respond. He wants to be found by us and gives us the opportunity to give Him permission to come. God is not forceful in His pursuit of your heart - He waits for you to allow Him in. He is a gentleman.
The God we serve is relentless in His pursuit for our hearts. Time and time again, we run away from His love and wander off from the highway to Heaven. Time and time again, He chases after us, even if He has 99 other sheep waiting in the pasture. He will not give up on that last little lost sheep.
This is a journey God has been traveling on with me for some time now. He is pursuing my heart and does not give up when I do. He continues to cover me in His love, even when it feels like I don't deserve it. He loves me unconditionally, which blows me away every time I am reminded of it. God's love is more than I am worthy of, but this love engulfs me and fills a cavity in me that cannot be filled with any earthly thing.
And this is my purpose this year: to share that love with whoever I meet, loving them the way God loves them. I am simply a watering can - love is poured into me from my Father, then poured out of me onto those around me.
"This is real love - not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins." ♡ [1 John 4:10]