Sexpections: God, Intimacy and Your Love LifeНамуна
Day 1
“Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” (Genesis 1:26-27 NIV)
When you looked in the mirror this morning, did you say to yourself, “This is a human being made in the very image of God!”?
Probably not. Instead, you noticed the messed-up hair and the sad story your eyes betray.
But God did create you for something truly glorious, something far more than anything you have yet experienced. When you think of being made in the image of God you may think of elements of your nature, such as your ability to communicate, to think, to choose, to be creative. This is your soul, the moral nature of your being.
You may not think of your need for intimacy and your sexuality as being made in the image of God, but even that part of you is made His image.
Love can only be love in relationship to another being. God is love. (1 John 4:8) As part of His core nature, God is a relational being. He desires and experiences true intimacy within Himself. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are so intimate we are told to think of them as One God, and He is!
So when He created you in His image He made you, like Him, to have the need, desire, and capacity for intimacy.
Evil has certainly used, marred, and distorted that need, desire, and capacity for intimacy. This is much more than sex. Remember that God created you in His image. He created you to need to be connected.
So when you need and desire intimacy, you are desiring something good. That need and desire is part of how you are made in God’s image.
Heavenly Father, I so often see my need for intimacy as something to be shunned and shut down. But I choose to embrace that You are the One who created me with the need, desire, and capacity for intimacy. And since You created me that way, I trust that You must have a plan to re-create me in this area also. Amen.
Scripture
About this Plan
Culture says, “anything goes.” The church says, “Do this, don’t do that.” But sexuality and intimacy are not first about behaviors; they are primarily about matters of the heart. In this 7-day plan, Dr. Carol Tanksley shows how addressing these deeper matters of the heart will lead you to find freedom from shame, healing from wounds, and true intimacy as God intended.
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