What kind of prayer would a person pray who is intimate with the Lord? They will make intimate requests. They will desire to see intimate virtues and experiences in the lives of those they are concerned about. You will never have to worry about a person who is intimate with the Lord praying that a bolt of lighting will strike you between your eyes and kill you. Never! Never will you have to worry about a person who is intimate with God, praying that you fail in any manner. They do not make those kinds of requests.
By Clifton Jones
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I want to highlight intimacy with God, which is one of the greatest needs of any believer. It strikes my attention and stirs my appetite because of its urgency. It has become an incommodious thing to realize that people seem to know something about some of everything, but fall so short when it comes to knowing the Lord. Or maybe it’s that they can enjoy other things above their relationship with the Lord. It is fruitless to talk about how much we love the Lord and won’t spend time with him. Our desire to hang with Him tells how we feel about Him. Our refusal not to spend as much time in other things that He is not a part of tells us how closely knitted we are with Him.
Intimacy
We are not talking about strangers; we are talking about somebody or something that is closely connected. Things that are known from an inward relationship. Intimacy, that which is known not causally but thoroughly and completely. Intimacy with God, not just casually knowing Him. Philippians 3 really got my attention. I was impressed with a man whom I felt truly knew God, but to listen to his language you would think he didn’t know Him as he should know Him. Whenever we are content with what we are doing, it is like putting up a stop sign, our progress comes to a complete arrest. We will have difficulty going beyond what we seek after.
I know every now and then God throws in a blessing, but the greatest blessings are those which are sought after. God does not encourage us to let a blessing fall out of the sky, but he encourages us to seek him. The Lord is concerned about our relationship with him. He is not just concerned about somebody panhandling for another Christmas handout, another emergency bail-out, another quick fix. We have to ask for some quick fixes some time, but that is not the total expectation in the Lord’s mind.
He wants us to know Him. He wants us to really get to know Him. Know Him to the degree, that we will appreciate being with him. We shouldn’t always blame the devil for our failures. One of our problems is that we have too many things which interfere with our relationship with Christ; time consuming things, mind distracting things, mind boggling things, that are there that we tend to enjoy above that of our relationship with the Lord. Until we become intimate in our relationship with Him, to the point that everything else is useless and secondary, I promise you there will always be something in our way. Not only in our way, but we will be stumbling over them, when Christ isn’t first in our lives.
Many seem to feel that standing up for Christ, means putting down the things that stands between you and him. Notwithstanding, an intimate relationship is our truest defense against any intrusion. A person who spend years living for Jesus, need to be commend, while there are so many who the kind of relationship we have with the Lord. Please realize that it is possible for some people to bow seven days a week without being able to utter a word. You know why? Such a one have not developed a habit of talking to the Lord. Their relationship is not personal enough to hold a genuine conversation. You say, “I’m praying in my mind.”
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