Purposeful Intimacy

“In your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

—Psalm 16:11

We all have those days.  The morning looks something like a tornado.  Fumbling out of bed, you slam the snooze button on your alarm clock for the third time and rub your eyes sleepily.  How did it get to be so late?  So you get up—rushed, scattered, frazzled—trying to get your things together.  A quick shower, finding clothes to wear, grabbing your bag and perhaps breakfast on the way out the door…

 But where does God fit in?  As you race through your busy day, you keep putting off your time with Him, and eventually you plop into bed at the end of the day, telling yourself that missing one day won’t matter.  But then it happens again.  And again.

 A.W. Tozer said, “The man who would know God must give time to Him.”  But so often we treat God as an add-on to our busy schedules.  But Jesus shouldn’t be an item to check off on your to-do list.  He should define what is on your to-do list.  Jesus cares about every little detail of your life even more than you do—He understands the deadlines, the schedules, all the little things that “tie you up”; but He doesn’t want you to have a selfish and half-hearted relationship with Him.  The stunning reality is that the Creator of the Universe wants to have an intimate, personal relationship with you, and it is His desire and delight to spend time with you!  The best part is that He’s always there waiting for you, every minute of every day, because He’s always faithful and His love is unconditional. 

You can’t truly get to know someone unless you invest in their lives, put them before yourself, and really spend quality time with them—that’s how relationships are built.  You are fully known by God…but how well do you know Him?  Intimacy does not just happen.  It must be purposefully planned and purposefully kept.  Waiting patiently for you, God wants you to lay down the burdens and stresses of your life and to simply bask in His sweet presence, letting Him replace your worry with His peace.  1 Corinthians 14:33 tells us that, “God is not a God of confusion but of peace”.  And while it is sometimes easy to get lost in the confusion of life, God wants you to trust in Him, the Author of Peace. 

Dear friends, we don’t have to wait to build intimacy with Christ.  We have the great privilege to meet with Him every single day, wherever we are—to commune with Him, worship Him, meditate on Him, talk and listen to Him, and pour our hearts out before Him.  Steal away for a few precious hours with your King.  Give Him your mornings, and He will help the rest of your day to run smoothly.  Talk to Him throughout your day...while driving, at work and school, wherever you are.  And learn to listen.  Purposefully plan a time each day to spend with Him, even if that means getting up an hour earlier or finding a secret, quiet place in the day to be alone with Him.  Prayer meetings, Bible studies, youth groups, and church sermons are all wonderful and help you to grow in your faith, but God desires to have a more personal, one-on-one, intimate relationship with you.  Your Beloved wants you to come away with Him, and Him only.  I love how Augustine put it when he said, “To fall in love with God is the greatest of all romances; to seek Him, the greatest adventure; to find Him, the greatest human achievement.”  Make Jesus your First Love.

But it’s not just about the quantity of time you spend with Him - it's also about the quality.  Do you rattle quickly through your prayers in an attempt to cross as many people off your prayer list as possible, or do you wait, and pray as the Spirit leads, while letting Him speak to you as well?  Do you hastily chatter through your prayers, or do you take the time to listen to His gentle voice?  Do you hurriedly read through an entire chapter or book of the Bible just to say that you’ve read “enough” for the day, or do you take the time to carefully study, practically apply, and attentively meditate on Scripture?  I pray that we will make Him and His Word the center of our lives.

God is pursuing you as if you were the only person in the world.  Tozer also said that “An infinite God can give all of Himself to each of His children.  He does not distribute Himself that each may have a part, but to each one He gives all of Himself as fully as if there were no others.”  Isn’t that an incredible truth?  Jesus is chasing after you, pursuing you, loving you.  And wherever you go in life, He will always be there, waiting patiently for you to cultivate a deeper and more intimate relationship with Him. *

“God has made us for Himself, and our hearts can never know rest and perfect satisfaction until they find it in Him.”—Hannah Hurnard

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Author's note:  I know I haven't posted anything in a while.  I get too caught up in the adventure of living that I have scarcely any time to just write about life.  But, I hope to post here more often in the future.  Check back weekly for more posts!