Enjoying Unhindered Intimacy with God

October 25, 2022 robuck4@aol.com 6 Comments

Identifying and Eliminating what Hinders our Fellowship with the One Who Made Us.

The Story

Could a former addict, who lost his job and almost his family, now enjoy unhindered intimacy with the Creator of the universe? You might not think so, but think again.

A couple of months ago, at a Saturday morning men’s breakfast, a brother, I’ll call him George, shared about his life of addiction, which held him captive for many years. Tearfully, George shared how tough love, accountability and God’s grace transformed his life. With a gleam in his eye, he declared that he now enjoys unhindered intimacy with God.

Those of us who were at the breakfast were very thankful for George’s honest vulnerability. It took great courage to admit his weakness, but we all saw how in his weakness, Christ showed Himself as strong. Too often men hide behind thin veneers of outward goodness, while inside, joy withers and souls dry out.

Men need to be brave enough to talk about deeper subjects than sports, cars, and fishing. That morning, George’s vulnerability led to more meaningful, transformative connections and conversations.

We men need to fight for this level of openness. It starts with our own courage to stop hiding and talk about our struggles. This is the gift George gave us that morning.

Since then, I’ve explored George’s phrase, “unhindered intimacy,” and would like to share what I’ve discovered.

Intimate Fellowship

What is intimate fellowship?

God is faithful, through whom you were called into fellowship with His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord (I Corinthians 1:9).

Our fellowship involves a deep association with Christ, a community with Him and a joint participation.

But what hinders our enjoyment of this intimate fellowship?

The Hinderances

Distractions

These days, they are far too many screens to capture our attention. Even in our times with God, they cry out, offering politics, sports, TV, short video reels and the like. These and other distractions invade our souls with noise and crowd our minds. We tend to suffer from a lack of intentional solitude.

May we be less like Martha and more like Mary. Less bothered and worried about what we do and more resting in the Lord as we love and serve.

³⁸Now as they were traveling along, He entered a village; and a woman named Martha welcomed Him into her home. ³⁹She had a sister called Mary, who was seated at the Lord’s feet, listening to His word. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted with all her preparations; and she came up to Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to do all the serving alone? Then tell her to help me.” ⁴¹But the Lord answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and bothered about so many things; ⁴²but only one thing is necessary, for Mary has chosen the good part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:38-42)

False Affections

We were created with an eternal hole in our hearts which only God can fill.[1] But, we tend to dedicate our lives trying to plug the void with temporal, fragile, fleeting pleasures. We are tricked into thinking these false affections, such as substances, porn, gluttony, achievements, possessions, and even human relationships, will quiet our longing souls.

The truth of the matter is the these impostures only hinder our intimacy with our Creator. We can’t depend on any earthly thing, including our closest relationships, to make us feel okay. God alone must be our Highest Joy.

You have put gladness in my heart, More than when their grain and new wine abound (Psalm 4:7).

Guilt and Shame

The guilt and shame of sin can make us feel unlovable and unworthy. As we pursue holiness, we can never depend upon our own strength to become like Jesus. Depending on God’s Holy Spirit within us is how transformation happens, not by our own strength.

Similarly, we can never depend on our own righteousness as the entrance into intimate fellowship with God. Any misunderstanding of the efficacy of Christ’s sacrifice for our salvation clouds us with guilt and shame, which hinders our approach to Father God.

We must not allow the enemy to hide God’s love and forgiveness from us.

If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all (I John 1:9 NASB).

Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus (Romans 8:1).

Jesus says that the more we are forgiven, the more we love.

⁴⁶You (Simon) did not anoint My head with oil, but she anointed My feet with perfume. ⁴⁷For this reason I say to you, her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little.” ⁴⁸Then He said to her, “Your sins have been forgiven” (Luke 7:46-48 NASB).

Doubt of God’s Love and Care

How many times have we heard or thought, “How could a loving God allow this or that to happen?”

After all, didn’t Paul say:

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28 NASB).

But what is our good? Is it pleasant circumstances? Is God’s purpose for us to live a comfortable life? The verse below gives us the answer.

For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren (Romans 8:29 NASB).

God’s purpose for us is to make us more like Jesus.

In the verses below, Paul despaired even of life. But, he saw God at work for His greater purpose of causing Paul to trust God and not himself.

⁸For we do not want you to be unaware, brethren, of our affliction which came to us in Asia, that we were burdened excessively, beyond our strength, so that we despaired even of life; ⁹indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead (II Corinthians 1:8-9 NASB).

In Conclusion

Because of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf, we have been given the ability to have unhindered intimacy with Almighty God.

To enjoy our fellowship:

We must fight distractions and pursue unhurried time alone with God.

We must not allow any affection to supplant God as our Highest Joy.

As we follow Jesus, we must not allow guilt and shame to discourage us from communing with God.

We must remember the power of Christ’s sacrifice on our behalf to take away our sin and grant us His righteousness.

We must not forget that God is at work to give us the freedom and joy of being like Jesus.

Hallelujah.

[1] Ecclesiastes 3:11

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The Joy of Love

The Love, Joy Connection

October 4, 2022 robuck4@aol.com 12 Comments

A Story

Close to thirty years ago, I was mowing the lawn with the small tractor I inherited from my grandfather. D.B. Leatherwood was a famous lawyer in upstate South Carolina, but to me he was Pop. We were close. I grew up with only a rolling hill separating me from my grandparent’s house. Pop was a self-made man. Orphaned at an early age and raised by his older sisters in the hills of North Carolina, he worked hard to earn a law degree from the University of North Carolina. He moved to Greenville to open his practice and that’s where he met my grandmother.

Pop didn’t show affection, but I knew he loved me. On late summer afternoons he’d hit fly balls to me down the hill. His batting was pristine. I don’t remember him ever even fouling a ball. At dusk, as the cicadas begin their serenade, he’d invite me up for a Pepsi and a bowl of cashews and Fritos. We’d sit in between the massive white columns on his front porch and “watch the world go by” along the busy street in front of his house.

As I mowed and navigated Pop’s old tractor around our small plot of grass, I thought of him. He took such good care of us when my father moved out. In my mind’s eye I could see him cutting our grass with his straw hat and plaid shirt, leaning in to keep the tractor balanced on the hills. He was like a father to me.

The thought of him that day filled my heart with what I must call joy. Though I felt happy, the experience was more than a feeling. For a brief moment the challenges of being a young, married, father of four with a stressful IT job seemed small. It was an eternal, larger than life, moment.

Looking back, I recognize part of the sweetness of the moment was the nostalgic remembrance of my childhood, but the gladness and joy stemmed from my relationship with Pop and our mutual love for each other.

That experience and many like it have made me realize how interwoven joy is with love. Personally, my experiences of joy seem to always involve a loving relationship, mostly with God, but also with the people I cherish.

The Joy of Loving

Scripture confirms how tightly coupled love and joy really are.

David, who loved God with a passion well documented, wrote that in God, our highest relationship, we find full joy.[1] The Psalms are filled with his worshipful love mixed with joy.

“For You, O Lord, have made me glad by what You have done. I will sing for joy at the works of your hands.” (Psalm 92:4 NASB)

David’s continual posture of loving God brought joy to his heart and gave him courage in the face of many difficulties.

As Saul’s men watched the house to kill him, David wrote to the Lord, “But as for me, I shall sing of Your strength; Yes, I shall joyfully sing of Your loving lovingkindness in the morning” (Psalm 59:16 NASB).

Our love of God, which extends to others, also fills our hearts with joy. Follow Jesus’ love for His disciples.

After Jesus washed His disciples’ feet He said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another even as I have loved you, that you also love one another” (John 13:34 NASB).

Jesus went on to say that if we loved others in the manner in which He has loved us, two amazing things would happen: we would live in His love and His complete joy would be ours.[2]

And concerning Jesus’ joy, the love connection is clear. In Hebrews we read that His love for us gave Him the joy He needed to endure the cross and secure our salvation.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, ²fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2 NASB)

We find the correlation between love and joy in many other places in Scripture. No matter what is going on, in and around us, loving God and others is the pathway to a joy which will bring courage and strength to our lives.

“Do not be grieved, for the joy of the Lord is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10b NASB).

The Challenge

Check your heart. At this moment circumstances may be pleasant, or you may be facing difficult trials. Are you encouraged or discouraged? In other words, do you have courage or not? Courage, fueled by a joyful heart, is what we need each day. No wonder we get the word “courage” from the French word for heart – “cour.”

Where do we find joy? It’s very easy to seek it from the world’s commodities: happy circumstances, pleasantries and fleeting affections which promise much, but produce only pain.

Do we do depend upon the happenings of life to keep our hearts glad? Certainly, there is much in this life to enjoy, but true joy, the kind which yields lasting strength and courage, comes from loving God first and then loving others as He’s loved us.

When this is the case, we are freed.

Free to love and free to truly enjoy what God has given us.

“Just as the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; remain in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will remain in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and remain in His love.These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you (John 15:9-12 NASB).

May we determine to fill our days in worshipful love of God; thanking Him, praising Him and adoring Him.

May we bask in His lovingkindness and love Him with everything within us!

As we love and draw near to Him, joy overtakes us because He is fullness of Joy.

Prayer

Lord, if I’m not careful, my heart gets attached to my circumstances. When this happens my courage to face life’s challenges wanes and flows based on my sense of how I’m doing. When this happens, You have repeatedly directed me to love. Over and over again, this redirects my heart to You, my Fullness of Joy.

May my days be filled with a continual longing to praise You, thank You, and love You. Please help me slow down enough to listen to You and to love the folks You bring my way, even those who hurt me. For this is the example you set for us when you washed Peter and Judas’ feet.

When I love, You fill my heart with gladness and joy, giving me the courage to face what comes my way.

When I stray from this single focused determination to love, please guide me quickly back.

I love You Lord.

Amen.

[1] Psalm 16:11

[2] John 15:9-12