Intimacy With God

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April 6, 2009

Early Light Daily Devotional from In Touch Ministries


READ | Romans 8:14-17

Suppose I asked you to characterize your relationship with God. Is He like a friend you meet occasionally for coffee? Or is He at the opposite end of the spectrum—a valued member of your household who is included in every aspect of daily life? Most likely, the nature of your bond falls somewhere in between.

Whatever the state of your relationship with the Lord, be assured that He wants something closer and more meaningful. God desires a connection so deep and strong that words like friendship and fellowship cannot fully describe it. He created us for intimacy.

Human beings are the only creatures made in God’s image. Like Him, we can think, reason, feel, and makes choices, though we do none of these things as fully or perfectly. The attributes that separate people from the rest of creation equip them to relate to the Lord in a unique way. Even the angels, who were designed for worship, cannot commune with the Father as we are invited to do.

Jesus called His followers “friends” (Jn. 15:15), and Paul wrote that believers are sons of God (Gal. 4:7). Those are not distant, impersonal relationships! When we spend time with the Lord, we grow as close to Him as a beloved child to a Father.

Some believers have the mistaken idea that doing something “Christian” is the way to make God happy. But the way to please our Father is by being Christian. He wants us to live in such a way that others see He is our Father and best friend.

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Note: Due to the continuation of this theme- I'm adding this reading to the previous thread.

Early Light Daily Devotional from In Touch Ministries


April 7, 2009

God’s Purpose for Intimacy


READ | Psalm 25:12-14

For most of my life, I believed that the heavenly Father and I shared a relationship for my benefit. However, His primary purpose for creating intimacy with believers is to reveal Himself.

In a genuinely loving relationship, each person wants to know more about the other. As believers, we’re sometimes guilty of taking a more self-interested approach and forget that God is the rightful center of attention. Instead, we head to church or into quiet time looking for something to inspire us, motivate us, or help us.

Part of the problem is that we would like to practice our faith in the safest way possible. Bible study, prayer, and church are relatively easy, compared to stepping out in faith or enduring persecution. But to know God intimately is not a purely intellectual pursuit. A truth about the Lord is not truly ours until He works it into our daily life.

Our Father wants His children to understand how He operates. The only way to gain that knowledge is by allowing God to unveil Himself in our life experiences. That means we must be willing to go through difficulty and pain as well as happiness and peace. A man can read that the Holy Spirit is the believer’s Comforter, but he does not know this truth until he has need of solace.

The Christian life is not about feeling good and deriving the greatest personal benefit from our connection to God. Rather, the Lord builds an intimate relationship with each of His followers. In that way, He can reveal more about Himself—truth by truth—as a believer needs that knowledge. What a privilege!

Dr. Charles Stanley

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Our Father wants His children to understand how He operates. The only way to gain that knowledge is by allowing God to unveil Himself in our life experiences. That means we must be willing to go through difficulty and pain as well as happiness and peace. A man can read that the Holy Spirit is the believer’s Comforter, but he does not know this truth until he has need of solace.

Last week I was speaking with a minister about some various biblical themes and today's devotional reminded me of something that he shared with me.

This reading might not be popular amoung some Christians. I know this because I used to be one of those who would argue that being a person of faith meant that there would be no problem, no illness or troubling situation that I could not overcome or have removed from my life. It's not that I stopped believing in miracles or answered prayer- but far from that idea, my faith is increased.

I must say that in my experience as I've lived this Christian life for over forty years...nothing could be further from the truth. There have been hard times, failures, sickness, loss and I praise God that during those times He never leaves me. He remains all powerful and He is Love. I also grumble, complain and even get angry with God when things aren't going my way. That's just how it is.

He gives me strength and does at times perform the miraculous. I have lots of testimnies about those times. But it's not always the case, and some things I have needed to endure in order to learn something more valuable than removal of the trial.

So what did that kind pastor say to me? He reminded me to take in the "whole counsel of God" and if one is to study the bible- that sounds like a no brainer to me. How could I do otherwise?

The problem with me was that I was taking things out of context and putting a spin on it. This was common in some the churches I attended. The spin was that life would be a bowl of cherries, with Jesus and me walking down the rosy path together hand in hand.
A familiar phrase from a few years back briefly sums up how I now view my own former theology:
"Not."

Instead what I have found to be incontrovertably true: God will not remove every difficulty I face whether I have the faith to believe it or not or whether I am sinful or not. Yet- the good news is that God never leaves me, He stays close by, always loves me as I am, gives me strength, provides for my needs and continues to teach me and guide me through the good times and the bad.

Taking in the 'whole counsel of God' is also how I discern what is true and what is false about His word, my faith and my perceptions of life. To me it means knowing what the bible has to say; to go beyond mere verses and in the proper context, look at the themes and what the various parts of scripture add up to mean in my own life.


I don't know about anyone else but I know that God is trying to get my attention when I hear the same message preached twice, or three or four times in a short time span.

Today as I have been writing this I have heard three similar messages on the radio about 'balance' and 'trials' and what the bible teaches me about those subjects. I still may not fully appreciate the hard times but I am so grateful for the assurance I have that God is good and has my best interest in mind to fulfill His purpose in my life.