God wants an interactive relationship with us. He wants a relationship with someone who wants one with him. We’re all a big part of this.
The reason I know this is because He extended an invitation to us that calls for our participation. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you” (Matthew 7:7).
Come on, God is God; He doesn’t have to do this. He could just as easily say, “Here’s what you get, here’s what you’re looking for, and this is where you’re going,” but instead, He asks:
What do you want?
What are you looking for?
Where do you want to go?
It’s amazing to me that God wants to engage us in this manner. I’ve always got Him so big in my thinking and me so small as to be basically irrelevant. But here God is making us part of the action. He’s coming to our level. He’s involving us in the process. How about it? Do you have answers for these questions? Do you think of your relationship with God in this manner? Are you spending so much time and energy trying to find out what He wants of you that you don’t even know what you want of Him? Come on… He’s asking you right now:
What do you want?
What are you looking for?
Where do you want to go?
Jacob once found himself wrestling with his fears all night and then realizing, half asleep and half awake, that he was wrestling with a form, and then a man, and then in the light of dawn, he saw the man’s face and it was the face of God. And as soon as he recognized this, he grabbed on even harder and said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” There is a man who knew what he wanted of God.
Now what kind of God is this who would let himself be wrestled over a blessing he already given? There was never any real contest. Though Jacob may have thought so, there was never any real concern about the outcome of this obviously lopsided match. God had already decided to bless Jacob, He had already even delivered the blessing; this was simply God coming down to Jacob’s level and allowing Jacob to think he was wrestling Him for it. Why would He do this? Was it to let Jacob own his blessing? Perhaps. Was it because He enjoyed this hand-to-hand close interaction with a man of His making in His image? Perhaps even more.
We see this in the natural world all the time – cubs wrestling with their parents, sometimes getting slapped around in the process. Chandler likes to wrestle with me, and I like it too. In some ways, it is the closest I can get to him – this physical push and pull. He is 12-years-old and very strong for his age. I can still maintain the upper hand, but I can tell it won’t be long before he will have me. But do I let him win even now? Do I give him the satisfaction of pushing me out of certain positions or reversing the control? Of course I do. And if I would do this as an earthly father, why wouldn’t I expect this from my heavenly Father who made me in His image?
Perhaps this is the biggest mystery of all… how much God wants a relationship with us, to the extent of allowing our intimate participation with Him.
What do you want?
What are you looking for?
Where do you want to go?
I think you’d better take these questions seriously, because I think it’s pretty obvious that God does or He wouldn’t have asked.
John Fischer The Catch 
John – just got your 2nd message about your need. In response to that and your first Catch message today:
Here’s what I want from God right now- I want Him to deliver you and your family. With the marriage of your son, this should be a joyful time unmarred by wondering if you’ll have a roof over your head. I want Him to change the heart of this man who is oppressing you and threatening to destroy something precious to me and so many others. I want God to protect you and us..
What am I looking for? A way to help with more than the chump change (compared to the need) I was able to send; an outpouring from all who know and love you that will get you clear of this mess.
Where do I want to go? Well, right NOW, I’d like to go see this fellow and wring his neck – but since I don’t know who he is or where to find him, I’m going to pray for him (and y’all) instead.
…And if God chooses to deliver you all the way to North Carolina, well, as long as I have a home, y’all have one, too.
You’re too much, Carole. I love what I’m receiving from you here; it’s a lot of love. Thank you.
Dear Pastor John, Marti and Chandler: I’ll 2nd every thing my lovely, pretty and so kind friend Carole wrote and thank you Pastor John for writing in today’s Catch about one of my favorite verses Matt: 7:7 – and giving me a deeper understanding of that it, to me it is about simply amazing God wants to know my wants, dreams and desires and as Rich Warren in the Daily Hope as been writting about God gives us dreams and it’s sooooooo neat He actually wants to help to fillfull thoses dreams – I believe all for His honor & Glory! Also I think / believe He will see fit to take care of and bless the Fisher family!
“Perhaps this is the biggest mystery of all…. how much God wants a relationship with us, to the extent of allowing our intimate participation with Him”. If we Christians could just get our arms around this, I believe most of our “troubles” would be eased. I once had a rather intense discussion with a close friend/pastor regarding the nature/essence of God. My stance was pretty much what you express here, John…. the desire of God for us to be intimate with Him…. I even went so far as to say He needed our love to merge with His. I said this boldly, because of what He is teaching us of love…. and what He has revealed to us of His essence through His Son Jesus…. “If you see Me, you see the Father, and hereafter, you have seen Him”. This is so huge!! My pastor/friend says that can’t be so…this need for our love…. because God needs nothing, being totally self-contained, and in need of nothing because He is God Almighty. I think not. I think He took a chance on love….. a chance on being rejected…. on being vulnerable…. on feeling the pain of it….. like when Jesus wept over Jerusalem. When I am with my little 3 yr. old grandson, taking a walk with him on my shoulders, or playing cars on the floor, or reading a book together, or telling him a favorite story…. sometimes he stops, looks me in the eye and says, “I love you G-pa”….. and I pick him up, and look him in the eye and tell him I love him too. It moves me so deeply, I can hardly contain it sometimes. This need to love, and be loved is in us by His doing. He put it in there so we could relate to Him and with each other, forever.
His Spirit is bending and reshaping this image/likeness back into the right shape after our fall. It is the most powerful force in heaven and earth…. this love… that is His…. and now gifted to us. Thanks for the catch today, John. ….,r
I’m with you totally here. That whole idea of God not being able to need anything is putting Him in a box. I have a novel called Saint Ben and the whole point of the story is for an ornery little kid named Ben to discover that not only is there a God-shaped hole in the heart of Ben, there is a Ben-shaped hole in the heart of God.
John, I also second everything Carole wrote. I want to do more to help you and your family and The Catch community. I appreciate so much your example of humility and vulnerability. You have been a blessing to me and my family in several ways for what – 35 years or more? You asked me to consider committing to a matching gift, and I stretched and found a way to commit to matching $1000 in gifts of other members of The Catch community. And like I said, I want to do more. After reading “Hold Me Up” I recognized a big difference between your requests for help and the many fundraising appeals I receive that seem so empty of the Spirit. So as soon as I finish this note, I’m going to give outright the $1000 I committed to match, and trust that I’ll still be able to match another $1000 in others’ gifts.
I really enjoy this! It is an adventure in trust, in wrestling. And I like that I can do this knowing that only you & Marti, me and God know who I am, so the enemy can’t turn this into something about me.
Fellow members of The Catch community, I encourage you to desire the same blessing I do, and give a little more than you think you can. Our Father will not let us get hurt. Our trust pleases him! And don’t let the enemy distract you with where the decimal point is in my trust-gift. You will know what is the right amount for you.
This is wonderful, David. Thank you so much!
John