Intimacy with God

 

I remember listening to a sermon by Dr. Vance Havner several years ago where he asked, "Does God have favorites?"  "No, God does not have favorites," he replied, "but He does have intimates, and you can be one of those."

When we read about the heroes of the Bible, the martyrs and saints of the Church, and the great evangelists of the last few centuries, one theme that we see is that they were all intimate with God.  They spent time with His people.  They fed on His Scriptures, and they spent time every day in prayer, communing with Him.  These things -- time with God's people, time in God's Word, and especially, time alone with God in prayer -- characterize those who are intimate with Him.  When we meet people who spend their time in this manner, we can often sense it right away.  There is something dramatically different about them; there is a peace, a joy, a humility, and a love about them that is supernatural and magnetic.  Their lives reflect a constant communion with God that is genuine. 

In the same way, the faithful, who walked so closely with God, spoke endlessly about love for God and His Word.  When reading what each of them said or wrote, one gets the sense that intimacy with God was their primary goal, and that God was their primary relationship.  In the book of Genesis, we read that "Enoch walked with God."  We read that "Noah walked with God."  Reading David's Psalms, we can see how he loved God.  Throughout the Bible, we see dozens of examples of intimacy with God.  They all spent "quality and quantity" time with Him.

Similarly, reading about or reading from the heroes of the Christian faith who have impacted me most, I can't fail to notice how much they emphasize communion with Christ and reflect that intimacy in their writing.  Augustine of Hippo, Francis of Assisi, St. John of the Cross, Brother Lawrence, Thomas a Kempis, John Bunyan, Charles Spurgeon, John and Charles Wesley, George Muller, George MacDonald, C.S. Lewis, Corrie Ten Boom, Vance Havner, Mother Teresa of Calcutta, and Thomas Merton all spoke incessantly about the importance of spending time getting to know with God.  Each of them represent different Christian traditions, but they were all devoted intimates of Christ.  

When we see the common denominator behind these faithful men and women, it becomes apparent that we don't have to be great writers or speakers to be devoted intimates of Christ; we only have to spend time alone with Him, reading and meditating on His Word, praying and communing with Him, loving and caring for His people.  If we do this, we will find our whole lives gradually transformed and conformed to His likeness.  People will sense and feel Christ's presence in us, but more importantly, we will sense and feel Christ's presence in our lives and know that we are intimately His.

Many new Christians (and some mature ones) mistakenly think that the common denominator behind faithful men and women is book-learning, or service, or accomplishments, but none of those things generate intimacy.  When I first met my wife, she worked in a business where she was privy to all kinds of details about me and my life that most people did not know.  That didn't mean that we were acquainted with one another, much less intimately known to each other.  It simply meant that I had to provide personal details about myself to do business with the company that she worked for.  In order for her to become acquainted with me, she had to spend time together with me.  Likewise, she had to make a commitment to me in order to have an intimate relationship with me.  That's the common thread that connects the great heroes of the faith: they committed themselves to God and spent time with Him.  We don't have to accomplish something news-worthy or historical to be intimate with God; we simply have to devote ourselves daily to living life with Him.  By spending time together with Him, reading and meditating on His Word, praying and communing with Him, loving and caring for His people, we will know God more personally and more intimately every day.