Intimacy: December 30, 2013

TODAY’S WORD FOR MONDAY DECEMBER 30, 2013.

INTIMACY

DEFINITION:

A close, friendly, familiar, and personal relationship.

SCRIPTURE:

Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Isaiah 55:6

Then God said, ”Let us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Genesis 1:26

KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE:

From the beginning it was God’s plan for man to have a unique position in His creation and to be uniquely different from all the other creatures He created. The first thing God tells us about ourselves in the very first chapter of Genesis is that He made us in His image and likeness and chose man to be God’s representative in ruling over creation (Genesis 1:26).

The command to rule, in this verse, separates man from the rest of living creation and defined his relationship as being above the rest of creation. He made us in His likeness because He desired to have an intimate relationship with us so He could show us He loves us.

One of the greatest needs we have is to know we are loved. This is how God designed us. He wants us to know that He loves us with a passionate intensity too deep for words. God created man (and woman) with fellowship in mind --- first with Himself, and then with others.  We cannot really love one another until we have experienced the love of God. The key for us to be intimate with God and to properly experience His love, we have to be willing to surrender to His call to be our Savior, Lord and Friend.

It was God’s plan that children come into this world as part of a family and be brought up in an environment of intimacy. It is the close family relationship that assures children that home is a place for acceptance, assurance, protection, understanding and above all unconditional love.

Our children learned this, not so much by our words, but by our actions and demonstrations. Yes, our children often made wrong decisions and had to be reprimanded but they were never unloved. We taught them that we are part of God’s family and like a loving parent He reprimands us but he never breaks His bond of intimacy with us.

As is always in scripture, God gives us a condition for us to experience His love. The condition is surrender.  God seeks our surrender first because He loves us and desires an intimate relationship with us. Secondly, He wants our service for Him to be effective and fruitful. The more we love and know Jesus, the more effective our service will be. Thirdly, He waits for the freedom to bless us. God is omnipotent but He will not violate His own principles. He asks for our willing surrender so He can give us the best blessings He can offer.

With all of this in mind, why do we resist the intimacy that God is ready to give us? Pride is the key reason most people resist surrendering to God. They think they know better than God and that they can handle their lives better than God can.

Others do not surrender to God because they fear what God will do or will not do for them. They think that if they give Him control of their lives He will make them do what will make them most miserable. Other’s fear God’s judgment for all of the mistakes they have made.

We taught our children, all of this is false. God always has our best interest in mind. It only makes sense for us to surrender to God, because when we do, we will desire to have an intimate relationship with Him. 

If you have drifted in your devotion to the Savior and feel that you grow more distant each day in your relationship with the Lord, then pray. He will draw you near. He knows your weaknesses and will come to you in a mighty way if you surrender. If you want intimacy with the Lord, just ask Him and He will never turn a deaf ear. He alone will bring you the comfort, the hope and blessings that you long for.

LEARNING:

Our memory verse for this week is found in II Corinthians 9:8.

And God is able to make all grace abound toward you, that you, always having all sufficiency in all things, may have abundance for every good work.

PRAYER:

It is my prayer today that, as David wrote in Psalm 34:10, they who seek the Lord shall not be in want of every good thing. Give me an intimacy with you as I learn to surrender more to You each day.