Intimacy with God

Do you know God? Not define-God know! Know-God know. Do you know-God know? Let me reframe that; do you share an intimate relationship with God? 

A while back, my cousin invited me to some event in her school dubbed ‘SIFU’. She was to somehow feature in it apparently, but I really was not detailed on what to expect of it. So I pretty much walked into JKUAT obliviously, only to be blown away by a fantastic mirth and worship filled show, delightfully pieced together by JKUAT christian union’s NAIRET – Nairobi Evangelistic Team.  The main act particularly blew me away. 

It was a skit. About a guy and girl who met accidentally, literally over an accident. They in the long run  fell in love and got married. The guy, an engineering student frustrated at how the books weren’t being kind on him, was walking to his hostel room when this girl out of the blues ran into him with a bicycle. Clearly in pain but acting all macho because of the girls presence, the guy somehow managed to get a date out of Irene -the girl on the bike’s name was Irene- , one thing led to another, and now they are married…with three kids! It’s a long story really, I won’t recount the whole of it in this post. But you can read of it here. The story eventually winds down to one of the sons being left behind when the family relocates overseas because he lacked some vital document. Basically, the son failed to share an intimate relationship with the father, making him miss out on something very big. 

The skit basically shed a spotlight on our dealings with God and how we can miss out on the perks that come along with sharing a relationship with Him. Intimacy frequently involves physical or emotional attachment, and from our social nature, we humans naturally develop a desire to belong, to love and to be accepted, which is normally satisfied within the walls of an intimate relationship. Erik Erickson, a psychologist, alleged it as all part of a  psychosocial phase in our development – a stage he dubbed ‘Intimacy versus Isolation’. (That, at least, I can brag I remember from school :) 

Genuine intimacy requires constant dialogue, lucidity, openness and reciprocity, and it usually is a product of a process of rapport building that enables the involved parties to assertively disclose previously hidden thoughts and feelings. Intimate conversations become the basis through which people are bound together. Additionally, if we believe that we are created in God’s own likeness,  then he too must possess this longing to become intimate. It’s true really; 

***Romans 5, 8***

 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners. 

Intimacy and love are common collocations. They get mentioned a lot mutually, and with God the case is no different. The maker of the universe, full of love, reached out to us in our sin, making the first move, so that we could have a connection with Him. This intimacy we experience streams unswervingly from Him. God is a lover looking for someone to love and he does not care much about how big or small one is. What matters is if one is available to experience His love. Being intimate through love makes God call us His friends, sons and daughters, and this shared intimacy does come with its perks. 

Growing more intimate with God causes us to be more like Him. We learn to love like He does. 1st John's fourth chapter majorly talks about love. It urges us to love each other because those who love and show kindness show that they are God’s children and that they are getting to know Him better. Chapter 17 talks of how we, through living with Christ, became like Him and so loved Him back. 

Another vital passage when it comes to the benefits we receive as we grow intimate with God is  2nd Peter Chapter 1. From kindness, goodness and peace to even a share in His own glory, we see lots of benefits God has for those who care to get into an intimate relationship with Him. This is brought our more clearly in chapter five; 

 ***2 Peter 1:5***

But to obtain these gifts, you need more than faith; you must also work hard to be good, and even that is not enough. For then you must learn to know God better and discover what he wants you to do. 

We see that to obtain God's gifts, we require more than just faith and being good. On top of those, we have to learn to know God better and also discern his plans over us. This loosely translates to “intimacy is pretty vital when it comes to receiving from God.” So whatever way you opt for as you seek to grow more intimate with Jesus, do it fervently because what is in for you is a lot more than you can envisage.
 

“One thing my heart is set upon, one thing that I would ask, is to know You, Lord, as close as one could hope to on this earth…” 

-Intimacy, Matt Redman.