#Bible Timeless Truths. Intimacy with God: Longing
INTIMACY is
- Linked to vulnerability (transparent honesty) with God
- Knowing and growing in Christ
- Wanting to spend time with God
- Getting to the place where you want to, and are willing to, go where God wants you to go.
What does intimacy with God look like in your life?
INTIMACY with GOD
- Starts with God who consistently reaches out to you.
- Changes with time as you go through your life.
- (parts of it) remain constant over time (your values/themes in your life)
- Must be cultivated and intentional.
Longing after God is part of your constitution.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled. Matthew 5:6
Three types of longing
The longing of a fulfilled heart.
7 However, I consider those things that were gain to me as a loss for Christ. 8 Yes most certainly, and I count all things to be a loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I suffered the loss of all things, and count them nothing but refuse [rubbish], that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, that which is of the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith, 10 that I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, becoming conformed to his death, 11 if by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. 12 Not that I have already obtained, or am already made perfect; but I press on, that I may take hold of that for which also I was taken hold of by Christ Jesus.
13 Brothers, I don’t regard myself as yet having taken hold, but one thing I do: forgetting the things which are behind, and stretching forward to the things which are before, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
Phillipians 3:7-14 (WEB)
- Paul writes that every part of life outside a fulfilled heart is rubbish in verse 8.
- Your goal is to gain Christ (v8). He writes this after many years of faithful living.
- He plans to press on (v12), PUTTING THE PAST BEHIND.
The longing of an overwhelmed heart.
Blessed is he whose disobedience is forgiven,
whose sin is covered.
2 Blessed is the man to whom Yahweh doesn’t impute iniquity,
in whose spirit there is no deceit.
3
When I kept silence, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long.
4
For day and night your hand was heavy on me.
My strength was sapped in the heat of summer. Selah.
5
I acknowledged my sin to you.
I didn’t hide my iniquity.
I said, I will confess my transgressions to Yahweh,
and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah.
6
For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found.
Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not reach to him.
7
You are my hiding place.
You will preserve me from trouble.
You will surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah.
8
I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you shall go.
I will counsel you with my eye on you.
9
Don’t be like the horse, or like the mule, which have no understanding,
who are controlled by bit and bridle, or else they will not come near to you.
10
Many sorrows come to the wicked,
but loving kindness shall surround him who trusts in Yahweh.
11
Be glad in Yahweh, and rejoice, you righteous!
Shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart!
Psalm 32 (WEB)
- The psalmist is at a very different place than Paul was.
- See also Psalm 63.
The longing of a busy heart.
“To the angel of the assembly in Ephesus write:
“He who holds the seven stars in his right hand, he who walks among the seven golden lampstands says these things:
2 “I know your works, and your toil and perseverance [hard, diligent workers], and that you can’t tolerate evil men, and have tested those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and found them false [held on to the right thing]. 3 You have perseverance and have endured for my name’s sake, and have [a] not grown weary [did not give up]. 4 But I have this against you, that you left your first love. 5 Remember therefore from where you have fallen, and repent and do the first works; or else I am coming to you swiftly, and will move your lampstand out of its place, unless you repent. 6 But this you have, that you hate the works of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate. 7 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes I will give to eat from the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of my God.
Revelation 2:1-7
- Overall, the Ephesians did good things.
- Problem: leaving their first love.
- This was leading to the removal of their lampstand from God's presence.
Whenever you spend time doing
"good, Godly things," you risk the chance of
losing your love for God.
Spend time in His presence DAILY.
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