Intimacy With God

Intimacy with God? It's simple really.
It's not the pillar we sit on; it's the house we live in.
It's not a list of dos and dont's; it's a branch staying connected to the Vine.
It's not striving to know God, but realizing that our Father longs to know us.
And it's free for the taking-at least or you and me.
But we must never forget-it cost Jesus his very life.

-From Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World by Joanna Weaver

     Here recently I completed a Disciple Bible Study course that lasted about 9 months and covered 70% of God's Holy Word.  This journey has taken my walk with the Lord to such a closer level. But as I continued throughout the course, sometimes I tended to just put my daily readings on my to-do lists. Once I finished, I checked them off and continued to the next thing.  But doing so left me feeling dry. I was thirsty for the Lord and hadn't taken the time to let him fill my dry cup. I know, too, that He wants to fill my cup. He wants to fill my cup probably more than I want Him to fill it.

     Robert Boyd Munger says it best in his book My Heart Christ's Home: The Lord told me, "The trouble with you is this: You have been thinking of the quiet time, of the Bible study and prayer time, as a factor in your own spiritual progress, but you have forgotten that this hour means something to Me also."

    As I get carried away in my own business of life, my time with the Lord seems to always get to be put on the bookshelf. Then, as I continue living that way, I start to feel like I'm drifting away from God. Whereas once I felt the closeness of Him everywhere I went, I now felt distant. Lost. But really all that it takes to be intimate with God is just prayer, the Word, and time.
    So I pray to stop putting God on the bookshelf when that's He's the book I need to read the most and He is longing for me to read it.