This Is LoveSample

There is no intimacy without communication.

Every married person knows that, and if they don’t, I’m guessing they are (repeatedly) told by their spouse. As an extrovert who needs to share my thoughts regularly, I often find myself lecturing my “man of few words” husband on the merits of communicating. And, hey, know what? It turns out I’m in good Company! (Yes, that would be Company, with an upper case C.)

While God doesn’t lecture us on communication, He loves hearing from us and speaking to us. He knows your thoughts from afar but waits for you to come into His presence. Scripture says in James 4: 8, “Come near to God and he will come near to you.”

He’s never too busy, never too tired, never too distracted to listen to you and speak to you. If we long for a friendship with God, we are to communicate with Him. As you know, communication is a two-way process: listening and speaking.

We primarily listen to God’s voice through His Word. When we go to His Word with expectation, giving Him the space to communicate to us through His Spirit who reveals the truth, God speaks. Friend, it’s time we got excited about this. Maybe we’ve become apathetic to it because we’ve heard it all our lives—but think about this stunning truth: the God of the universe speaks to you!

We primarily speak to God through prayer. Our prayers are not about presenting a laundry list of requests to God. Our prayers are meant to be far sweeter as we pour out our praise to Him and empty our pain before His throne of grace. Prayer is not about going to God because we need something from Him. It is going to God because He is our everything.

These two aspects of communicating with God—reading the Word and prayer—go together. As Tim Keller says in his book Prayer: Experiencing Awe and Intimacy with God, “Our prayers should arise out of immersion in the Scripture. [We] speak only to the degree we are spoken to. . . . The wedding of the Bible and prayer anchors your life down in the real God.”

Friend, do you want your life anchored in God? May you seek Him in His Word and pour out your heart in prayer in response to His voice.

This is love—that the God of the universe speaks personally to you and inclines His ear to hear your voice. May we respond to His love.

Lean In

Father God, I long to know You more—and, in Your grace, You’ve given me a way to do that through Scripture and prayer. Lord, may I never take the privilege of reading Your Word or speaking to the Almighty God for granted. Give me a hunger for Your Word and a heart of worship and prayer. In Jesus’ name. Amen.