Intimacy With God

I'm going through a time in my life right now where I'm stepping into my calling as never before. Even this week over the past few days I've watched God reveal His mission for me and show me how to begin living it out.

It's a wonderful experience and as it happens I feel His pleasure. But it also reminds me that there is something in the Christian Life that is higher than living out the mission. The more I step into my purpose, the more it leaves me thirsty for intimacy with God and I'm reminded that that is really the point of it all.

Matthew 7 provides a sobering picture for us. In it, Jesus explains that there will many people who will come to Him wanting to tell Him all about the great stuff they did in life. He sends them away saying, "I never knew you."

I'm not suggesting, and I don't believe Jesus is either, that intimacy is a requirement for salvation. What I believe His point is that intimacy is a natural and expected outcome of a heart that has been reconciled to God and is being restored to glory.

All that we do is meant to flow out of this closeness with God and all that we do is meant to drive us back to into it. Intimacy is the hub, the center, of all God means for us to do and experience in the Christian Life. And thank God for that! For as wonderful as stepping into purpose is, it can't satisfy our hearts the way intimacy can. It was never meant to.

Finally, let me say that this is available. This isn't something that's reserved for those who've made ministry their vocation, the very holy or the super spiritual. God intended intimacy with Him to be a normal part of the Christian Life no matter where we're at in that journey. We're not to wait until we have it all figured out. We're to figure out by walking closely with Him, hearing His voice and feeling His presence. Only then will our hearts find the satisfaction they were meant to experience.