Endless Love: Intimacy With GodSample

You Must Be Near To Be Intimate

When you’re intimate with a person it is someone that you feel very close to. You know them beyond just the surface and on a deeper level. The closeness that you feel in intimacy isn’t to be mistaken for simple physical proximity, rather it is experienced relationally.  What do I mean? Have you ever been sitting right next to a person and yet feel very distant from them? The reason why this happens is that the relationship lacks intimacy. There are some people that we can be thousands of miles apart from them but still feel close to them because of the intimacy in the relationship. One of the vital components needed to have true intimacy is trust. A person can't feel safe and secure to share their deep and intimate secrets with someone they do not trust. 

Trust is the heartbeat of intimacy. We are drawn closer to those in whom we believe that we can trust. On the other hand, it can be nearly impossible to trust someone that you don’t know or refuse to spend time with. God has made His intimacy available to His children and invites us to draw near to Him (James 4:8). The nearness that we are drawn to in God isn’t a description of His proximity to those He draws, but it is of the depth of intimacy that is experienced. As believers, we have an inner desire to be close and near to God, but it is often neglected when the relationship lacks trust. We must trust God with our plans, relationships, and our entire life. In the moments that we seek to confide in Him, and not just in our mere human intellect, that our trust in Him is strengthened. We are told to “trust in the Lord with all of our hearts and not to lean on our understanding” (Proverbs 3:5-6). 

In our intimate time with God, we can come to Him completely unafraid. God already knows our deepest secrets and the worst of our flaws, yet He wants us to trust Him enough to confess it and lay them down at His feet.