From the very first page through the very last, the Bible seems to demonstrate one relentless passion… that is, the Father’s passion to see those whom He has created walk in intimacy with Him. In Jeremiah 31:3 the Lord speaks to the people of Israel saying, “I have loved you with an everlasting love… and I have drawn you in loving-kindness.” This verse is so beautiful not only because it reveals the depth of the Father’s love toward us but also because it demonstrates God’s passion to draw us into His presence.
Even when the hearts of the Israelites had turned from God, the Lord said, in Isaiah 65:1, “I revealed myself to those who did not ask for me; I was found by those who did not seek me. To a nation that did not call on my name I said, “here I am, here I am!” The Lord’s unyielding pursuit, to draw His people into an intimate, loving relationship is as true today as it has ever been before. You see, it is and has always been God’s deepest desire that you and I walk in the garden with Him in intimacy just as Adam and Eve had once walked with Him in the Garden of Eden.
[prayer]
In Deuteronomy 33:12, Moses, just prior to his death, blesses Benjamin saying, “Let Benjamin, the beloved of the LORD rest secure in the Lord, for he shields him all day long, and Benjamin, the one the LORD loves, rests between his shoulders.” This is amazing imagery… Moses is telling Benjamin not only that he can rest secure in the Lord and that the Lord is watching over him, but also adds that God has him securely placed on his shoulders. Now dads… how many of you have ever taken your kids to the mall without their insisting that you carry them on your shoulders. It is a place not only of security but also a place of intimacy. And so Benjamin lived his life empowered by the realization of the Father’s love toward him.
David writes in Psalm 103, “The love of God is from everlasting to everlasting” and in chapter 40, David writes, “your thoughts toward us are too numerous to count.” My daughter Sarah is such an adventurer. Particularly when she was younger, I loved to watch her explore her world and watch her as she discovers a new smell or color. How often, when we were all children, when no one was watching, did we make some great discovery… perhaps when you first discovered your fingers or that if you pushed a little bit to one side, you could roll yourself over. You see, your heavenly Father was there, delighting in every discovery you made. The Father was there, with thoughts of love and delight too numerous to count. There simply isn’t a given moment of any given day where the Lord isn’t participating in your life, thinking loving thoughts about you.
It is with this in mind that the Scripture says that the Father has counted the very hairs on our head. We often don’t realize, because this verse is so familiar, the degree to which this demonstrates how intimately the Lord is involved in our lives. We just have no idea of the effect we have on God. David’s son, Solomon, tries to portray this in the Song of Solomon where the bridegroom, who, in this passionate allegory, represents Jesus, says, “you have stolen my heart, you have stolen my heart”.
For many of us, however, this is difficult to accept… that our Christian life is not as much about our seeking an encounter with the Lord but rather, God seeking an encounter with us. That God anxiously looks forward to every authentic moment spent with you. Think of it... Each and every moment in Heaven, the Lord is receiving perfect praise and worship from throngs of angelic worshipers. Yet, when the Lord heard that first note coming from your lips, the Lord, without hesitation, left that beautiful worship of heaven to receive your praise and to interact with you… to be with you. That is what Scripture means when it says that the Lord inhabits the praises of His people.
You see it is and has always been God’s desire for us to walk in the garden with Him, in intimacy, just the way Adam and Eve once had. And so, in lovingkindness, the Lord draws us to himself. I love to search scripture for those verses where God calls us to himself. Like in Isaiah where the Lord spoke to Israel saying, “come, let us reason together says the Lord, though your sins be as scarlet, I will make them whiter than snow” or when our Jesus said, “come, all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”
How will we respond to the Father’s invitation to come? First we need to understand what the Lord means by that. Ultimately, I believe, it has to do with our giving God access into our lives. I hear parents of teens so often say that they simply have no access into the lives of their kids… they just don’t know what is going on… what they are feeling or what they are involved in. In the same way, God wants access into our lives.
How can we do that? By interacting with Him… not just our intercession but more importantly, through listening to Him. One of the most special ways we can do this is through “soaking” prayer… Where you might dim the lights, turn on an instrumental, perhaps lay down, close your eyes, and worship the Lord in the quietness of your heart. Again, it’s not so much praying to God but rather, through these times of “soaking prayer”, we are posturing ourselves to receive the love and acceptance the Father passionately desires to lavish on us.
I love when Rebecca climbs up on me to cuddle. Though she really is a mush, sadly it doesn’t always happen. During the day, she tends to be moving a mile a minute. But often, at the end of the day when she is completely pooped, she’ll come up to me and plop herself all over me, with lots of hugs and kisses. But you know, as much as I love her expressions of love, I also cherish the opportunity she gives me during those times to lavish my love on her. By giving me access to her, she is giving me the opportunity to love her back. And when we give God access to ourselves, by crawling atop his lap and expressing our love to Him in worship, He then has the opportunity to once again express the depth of His love toward us.
But we can’t force it. You know, just about every time we take Rebecca anywhere to eat out, she insists on having French fries. Even though I try not to touch them, remembering just how fattening they are, I inevitably ask her if I can have one. I can get the same response every time… NO! I could be famished and she wouldn’t even consider giving me just a single French fry. Of course, it is crazy b/c I’m the one who BOUGHT the French fries. I certain have the strength to overpower her and steal one from her. But the fact it, I just let it go, each time encouraging her to give me one… then maybe two. That’s the way it is with God. He calls us to abide in Him, but He wont force us to. With far greater passion than my wanting a French fry, the Lord longs for us to abide in His presence… not just so we can enjoy Him but so He can enjoy us.
One time I was at a conference… God’s presence was thick… I needed to lay down for several hours as the Lord ministered to me. He could have done what He did in just a moment, but He chose to minister over the course of a few hours? Why? “Because I wanted to spend the time with you.”
Our highest calling is to intimacy with the living God. This is what Paul is saying when he writes in Phil 3:14, “I press on toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.” Our highest calling is to intimacy with Jesus… both in this life and in eternity. But to enter into this, we must make time for Him… just to love Him and receive His love for us… no other agendas. That needs to be the high calling of this church as well.
Some time ago, I was struggling with apathy in my walk with God. I knew how much I loved Him, yet for some reason, I was keeping Him at arms length. One morning I awoke feeling as though something was wrong in my relationship with God. I stopped what I was doing and began to pray. But honestly, I didn’t know what to say… I almost felt too empty inside to even pray about it. I felt Him say to me, “just ask me for help.” The moment the words, “help me Lord” left my mouth, the Lord began pouring His love over me while at the same time exposing the root cause of the apathy I had been feeling.
It related to my struggle with dieting and food… how I looked to food for comfort and Dr. Atkins for answers… rather than the one who cares most for me. Basically, this was one area where I simply wasn’t giving God access. There may be areas of your life, which you have closed down to the Lord. Maybe something had gotten in between your relationship with God that remains unresolved. Whatever it is, ask Him for help. This is what Jesus means when He says, “knock”… “knock and the door will be opened for you.”
You just have to remember that God’s acceptance and love for you is not based on what you do or don’t do… rather, we are received by the Father on Christ’s merits alone. You see, everything we need to come to the Father is provided in the Son. And not only has Jesus given us access to the Father, but He has given us the Holy Spirit by which we can cry out, “abba father”, daddy, I love you too.
Yet, for so many believers, receiving His love and joy while giving access to our Heavenly Father, seems so impossible. Why? I suppose there are many reasons. For example, we know how a distorted image of our heavenly Father can hinder our ability to receive God’s love. But I want to focus on another hindrance to receiving God’s love and acceptance… that is the distorted image many of us have of ourselves, and how this prevents us from walking in intimacy with Him.
I‘m convinced that we cannot experience a healthy, intimate relationship with God without a proper understanding of how God views us. In Christ, we have a new spiritual identity to draw from… which are those things I’ve been sharing about concerning the Father’s love toward us… and because of that, we know that we are the object of His affection.
Let me start by asking you something. When God looks at you, what is it that you think He sees? The sin you might have committed yesterday or the dirt and baggage you may be keeping in secret? I really don’t think so. He sees it, but it’s not what He is focused on. Several months ago, Sarah, now 1.5 years old, ever so gracefully, placed my $240 Palm Pilot into the toilet bowl. And, as I watched the water dripping out from within it, just how furious do you think I was? She looked at me and smiled… and I hugged and kissed her. To a much greater degree we too are loved of God… and when this love begins to wash us, where we are living in the reality of what we really look like to God, then we will be more able to rest in His presence
But rather than embracing our spiritual identity, so many of us continue to live according to our natural identity. In other words, rather than defining ourselves as the object of God’s love, we define ourselves by things such as our performance, what other’s think about us, and the struggles we face... lack of discipline, self-control, or whatever. We even tend to define others by their struggles as well… “that person is immoral, he is angry, she is bitter.” But God will define you by the cry in your heart and the gift of righteousness we have in Christ.
He sure did this in the life of Peter. Having just denied Jesus three times and without the opportunity to tell Jesus how sorry he was, Peter was devastated… and he felt like a hopeless hypocrite. Yet the power of the tremendous guilt and shame Peter felt was broke in moments when, after the resurrection, Jesus appeared to Peter and asked of him three times, “Peter, do you love me?” As Jesus is asking Peter for the third time, he says, “Lord, you know that I love you!” You see, Jesus knew Peter loved him… He saw the cry in Peter’s heart to walk in intimacy with Him, but Jesus needed to help Peter stop defining himself as the hopeless hypocrite and begin defining himself as a love. Peter realized through this that while he did deny Jesus, he really did love God… and he began to receive Jesus’ definition for his life. “I wont define myself as a hopeless hypocrite… but rather, I really do love God... and I can be a shepherd in the church.”
Like Peter, I am not going to define who I am by what I struggle with… I love God and God loves me. And the reality of this empowers me to spend time with Him and to give him access into my life… giving Him the opportunity to lavish His love on you. This is the heart of the Christian life.
WORSHIP TEAM, COME UP!
In the Song of Solomon, chapter 2, the Bridegroom invites his bride to come to him, saying, “Arise, my darling, my beautiful one, and come to me.” The bride responds, “My beloved is mine and I am his.” In the next chapter, the bride has a dream that she had b/c separated from her bridegroom and writes, “on my bed night after night I sought him whom my soul loves.” Then, from a distance, the bridegroom approaches saying, “You are altogether lovely, how beautiful is your love.” The Lord is looking at you and says, “you have stolen my heart”. “How beautiful is your love.” And so, He invites you saying… “Arise my darling, my beautiful one, and come to me.”
What if you purpose to “come to Him” giving the Lord greater access into your life, yet fail at maintaining consistency? Know that God isn’t angry… in fact He is thrilled at the attempt. When Rebecca began walking, did I get angry when she fell? Not even a little bit. I was so proud of her… and God is and will be of you! He sees the cry in your heart.
God wants that same intimacy with you… he doesn’t want the forms of the faith… he wants you. Jesus didn’t endure the Cross of Calvary so that we could fulfill some religious duties. He wants you, your love. Can you imagine a bride saying, “I will always be there for you… but no intimacy.” Believe me, no bridegroom would be excited by that… nor is God. He wants you… and invites you to come into His presence. And in His presence, as David writes in Ps 16:11, “is fullness of joy… in His right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
The Lord is looking at you and says, “you have stolen my heart”. “How beautiful is your love.” And out of that love He invites you saying… “Arise my darling, my beautiful one, and come to me.”
ALL STAND
