Before fully activating my faith, I was a Corporate CEO chasing success with a load of pain burdening my every step. Every minute. Every breath. Even now I can remember stretching out for Jesus to know him intimately. What I did not realize then, but know now, is that he was waiting for me to surrender first.
Tears of joy flowed like a rain-swollen river when I fully surrendered my life to Jesus and ended up in his inner sanctuary to encounter the Lord of Heaven and earth. I shouted out my joy. And I expressed my DEEP DESIRE to learn more about him and who he would have me be.
Every Christian on the planet wants to have an INTIMATE RELATIONSHIP with God. To be one with him and find his purpose for their life. To be free from sin-soaked living in a sinister world.
But intimacy with God is far from automatic. In my life, being intimate with Jesus boils down to a two-stroke commitment: DEEP DESIRE (John 17:22-23*) with REVERENTIAL FEAR (Psalm 25:14*). *See scriptures below.
Intimacy with God is bonding with his love and mercy, love and righteousness, love and forgiveness. It is also understanding his hatred of SIN. But God does not want us to be afraid of him. He wants us to develop a healthy and reverential fear of the consequences that come from rejecting him.
Here is the reality: God is loving (Luke 7:34) and deserving of our reverential respect and trust in him (Psalm 25:14).
He loves us enough to allow pain that is often more painful than we would ever want to endure. But on the coin’s other side is the glorious fruit of God’s Spirit which is far sweeter than we could ever imagine.
I ask God to continually remind me about the importance of fully surrendering my life with a DEEP DESIRE and REVERENTIAL FEAR to be intimate with him.
WHAT ABOUT YOU?
Are you intimate with God?
“I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” John 17:22-23
“The friendship of the Lord is for those who fear him, and he makes known to them his covenant.” Psalm 25:14
