Week Twenty Question

Have you reached such an intimacy with God that the Lord Jesus Christ’s life of prayer is the only explanation of your life of prayer? Has our Lord’s vicarious life become your vital life?

“The idea of prayer is not in order to get answers from God; prayer is perfect and complete oneness with God. We are not here to prove God answers prayer; we are here to be living monuments of God’s grace” - Chambers  August 6

My Response:

Intimacy with God.  His desire to be known by His children is as great as His love for them. This intimate love is the very thing that holds together the foundation of my relationship with God.

Reciprocating this kind of intimacy requires a seeking heart. Seek and you will find is a spiritual principle. God says that if we seek Him with all our hearts, we will find Him. But what if we’re seeking something else such as personal empowerment or personal satisfaction? What if we’re really seeking something that agrees with our own spiritual agenda? And what if we’re only half-looking?

So what does God say about intimacy? What is God’s perspective and is it at odds with our perspective?

Looking in the Bible, it may, at first, be difficult to narrow down a search for specific verses about God’s perspective on intimacy. The truth is that everything that God does and says in His Word displays His intimate love for the human race. There is not a word of scripture that does not shout the desire of the Father to have deep fellowship with His children, to become intimate with them so they can experience the fullness of Christ in their lives.

It is because God reaches out to us with His desire for intimacy that we, His children, are able to reciprocate that desire back to Him. A heart that has allowed the deep intimacy of God to take ownership reveals and reflects it back.

That’s when the “deep calls to deep” principle goes into effect. This phrase comes from Psalm 42:7. If you look at it in the original, it becomes clear. The word “deep” means: bottomless or anything too great or deep to be measured. The word “calls” means the idea of accosting a person met, to encounter, not calling from a distance, up close and personal calling.

Literally this means: measureless, bottomless depth intimately encounters and accosts measureless, bottomless depth. There is great depth to God, a never-ending story, but sometimes we want the Reader’s Digest version, and then wonder why we are weak, distracted, misdirected, and fearful.

Father-God, Your deep love for me is sometimes beyond my capacity to understand it. As I encounter and seek You in an up close and personal way, reinforce and strengthen my very foundation.

Check out: Psalm 42