Your relationship with God is a lot like other relationships in your life in that it requires you to pursue deeper levels of intimacy. When many people hear the word “intimacy,” they immediately think about romance within a relationship, but that’s obviously not the kind of intimacy God wants with His people. Intimacy isn’t about romance. Instead, intimacy within a relationship is about both members of the relationship knowing one another better. You can pursue more intimacy in your relationship with God today.
When you think of the word “intimacy,” what comes to mind? When most people hear this word, especially in the context of a relationship, they think of romance or even sexual intimacy between partners. While that’s certainly one definition, take a look at how Webster’s Dictionary defines the word “intimate:”
Intimate: marked by a warm friendship developing through long association.
The root of intimacy is about having a warm friendship through a long association with another person. With that definition in mind, how intimate is your relationship with God? One of the best ways to have “warm friendship” with another person is to get to know them better while they get to know you better. The more you know about someone and the more they know about you, the more intimate your relationship can become.
Now, we understand that God knows everything about you. In fact, God has such an intimate knowledge of you that even the most minute, unimportant details are known to Him. Look at these words of Christ to the disciples:
Luke 12:7 (ESV)
“Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than any sparrows.
The number of hairs on your head are numbered. That’s incredible, even if you don’t have quite as many hairs on your head as you used to. The fact that Christ said that God has numbered the number of hairs on the heads of His people means that God knows every detail about us, even the ones that aren’t all that significant in the scope of eternity.
That puts the ball in your court regarding how intimate your relationship with God is. God already knows everything there is to know about you. After all, He is the one who formed you in your mother’s womb, and even before He did that, He knew everything about you (Jeremiah 1:5). Warm friendship comes from knowing someone better than you knew them before, and since God knows everything about you, it’s up to you to know everything you can know about God.
Can we really know God? Is there truly a way for a finite human mind to comprehend an omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent Being? There certainly is! Even though the Bible says that we can’t understand everything there is to know about God (Romans 11:34), we can take steps to become more intimate with Him.
Identifying Our Barriers
Isaiah 29:13 (ESV)
And the Lord said: Because this people draw near me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, while their hearts are far from me, and their fear of me is a commandment taught by men.
If you are in a romantic relationship and have ever met with a relationship counselor, he or she may have discussed “barriers to intimacy” with you. Identifying barriers to intimacy is one of the most important aspects of improving or restoring relationships. When dealing with your relationship with God, it’s vital that you understand the barriers to your intimacy with Him.
One of the more predominant barriers to intimacy with God that many people run into is religion. That may sound counterintuitive as we associate our religion with our relationship with God, but there is a difference. In this verse from Isiah, God spoke about people who use religion to say they’re close to Him, but their hearts are “far from Him.” It’s easy to become so caught up in the tradition and the practice of our relationship that we fail to let our hearts get close to Him. Intimacy with God is about the heart, not the lips.
We can also let our shame serve as a barrier to intimacy. We tend to view ourselves through our failures instead of our successes. That doesn’t make you a negative person, it simply makes you human. When we assume that God views us the same way we view ourselves, it’s easy to assume that He doesn’t want to be intimate with us. That’s simply not true. God views you as worthy regardless of your past failures.
Finally, we can also let pride be a barrier to intimacy. Tragically, many people believe they’ve reached a point of spiritual success that puts them above needing an intimate relationship with God. While shame can leave us feeling unworthy, pride often makes us feel overly superior. Both are wrong, and both are dangerous barriers in our pursuit of intimacy.
If you feel like any of these barriers are standing between you and intimacy with God, allow the Holy Spirit to start tearing down those walls. God wants to be intimate with you, and that requires the pursuit of intimacy on your end.
Worship: The Door to Intimacy
Mark 12:29-30 (TPT)
Jesus answered him, “The most important of all the commandments is this: ‘The Lord Yahweh, our God, is one!’ You are to love the Lord Yahweh, your God, with a passionate heart, from the depths of your soul, with your every thought, and with all your strength. This is the great and supreme commandment.”
How can you love God more intimately than you do today? One of the most important ways of going about this is through worship. In the same way that we often misunderstand the word “intimacy,” we also misunderstand the word “worship.”
Worship is not something that only takes place when the musicians at your church are playing a song. Worship isn’t something that only happens when you’re listening to music at home or in your car. In fact, worship, at its very core, has absolutely nothing to do with music. Instead, worship is about taking time to reflect about the goodness and the glory of God in your own life.
If you are looking for opportunities to strengthen your intimacy with God, start by spending more time in worship. Instead of waiting until Sunday morning to worship, worship through the week. When you’re alone in your car, think about ways that God has blessed you. Take a walk and look at the beauty of God’s creation and thank Him for it. Read Psalms out loud and allow the words to truly sink in. When you allow yourself to become more immersed in worship, you know even more about God.
Making Intimacy a Priority
Luke 10:41-42 (TPT)
The Lord answered her, “Martha, my beloved Martha. Why are you upset and troubled, pulled away by all these many distractions? Mary has discovered the one thing most important by choosing to sit at my feet. She is undistracted, and I won’t take this privilege from her.”
Finally, you will never achieve intimacy with God until you make it a priority. Think about something that you do every day of your life. Would you go a day without eating, drinking, or taking a shower? Probably not! Would you go a day without spending time with God through worship, His Word, and prayer? If so, you’re cheating yourself out of intimacy with Him.
Commit to making intimacy a daily priority. When you spend a portion of your time every day pursuing intimacy, God will reward your diligence. You can be intimate with God, but it requires daily commitment.
A Closing Prayer:
Heavenly Father, I want to know more about You. I want to know Your character, more about Your mind, and Your heart. Help me to overcome my barriers to intimacy and show me opportunities to worship You every day. Finally, help me to prioritize the things that really matter, primarily intimacy with You. I know You know everything about me, and I want to know everything that I can about You. In Christ’s name I ask these things, Amen.