Good Afternoon Girls,
I cannot believe we only have 3 days left of this study. I am really going to miss blogging each day and going through this study with each of you.
Intimacy with God...I thought today's devotional was beautiful. I was really in awe reading and thinking about all the ways God woos me with his love and how desperately he desires intimacy with me. It is truly a love story. Somethings I highlighted and reflected on are that "Intimacy is the process of drawing closer to another." That reminds me of another verse in scripture: Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. James 4:8. But what keeps us from being open and intimate with God? Many things.... sin, fear, pride, fear of being vulnerable, etc. I think the very same things that hinder us from being completely unveiled and intimate with our husbands are the same things that hinder us from being intimate with God.
"Sin hinders intimacy, but forgiveness restores it. Sin hinders intimacy, but love redeems it." I think personally, my pride of thinking oh I can handle this or that hinders me from intimacy with God. We know pride is a form of sin, too. I think something else that happens is we get in the mindset of God already knows everything, He sees everything, so why do I need to communicate everything to him? But he longs to hear from us and the closer we get to God, the more we feel his presence, the more we can experience the blessings of peace and joy in our lives and the more we can be a light for others.
How will an intimate relationship with God affect your marriage?
The closer I am to God the more I see positive changes in Justin, the more I see him desire to be a spiritual leader, the more we pray together, the more we have peace.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ov-OCJBVDcM
Wow, Trina. Your post was beautiful too! It really put things into perspective for me! I did yesterday's devotional this morning - and I'm so glad that I did. I will get to fulfill my challenge by going to church this morning and experiencing communion in a whole new light. I will see it as a very intimate part of the service and think of it as how Jesus must have felt sharing that intimacy with his disciples. I also will pursue reconciliation to God for anything I've been hiding from Him (Day 26's challenge).
ReplyDeleteThe same parts of the devotional stood out to me, Trina, but one other also did..
"His love motivates His pursuit. He will use everything around you to point your heart to His." I found this to be really amazing. It's almost as if he is herding us, but not all the way into the pen.. but rather taking us there 70% and asking that we fulfill our part the other %.
So, today, I will partake in communion as a way to initiate intimacy with God. I will also continue to pray to Him daily (and work on multiple times each day), and I will also ask for forgiveness when there is sin in my heart. Then, as I draw closer to God I will notice changes in my marriage with Torey. My actions (more joy, more peace, etc) will rub off on Torey and we will experience extraordinary.
In what ways do you think God is pursuing you in your life right now?
Happy Sunday, ladies!
So, I almost shed a few tears this morning in church (more or less happy tears). The sermon today was all about sin, forgiveness and reconciliation with touches about hiding things in our lives from God. It had so much to do with yesterday's devotional that my jaw dropped in my mind a few times. I was also reminded of the gift of forgiveness that God gives us in honor of Jesus' sacrifice and also that "Jesus" literally means God Saves. Just awesome.
ReplyDeleteThe pastor of this church married us and I am really starting to feel at home in this church, so we are getting closer to becoming members. (After nearly 10 years of not going to church on a regular basis because of life, moving, etc. I feel relieved to now have a place to call home each Sunday. WOO HOO!) Just wanted to type an update because of how profound today's church service was to me in regards to our devotional topic. :-)