C.H.I.L.L.withus

A publication of chillwithus.tv
August 1, 2017

I can remember when going to church meant getting up early on Sunday mornings, putting on my best dress, white tights, and patent leather Mary Janes. Church was an hour and a half long, and my grandmother would bring sufficient peppermint candy to keep me quiet. And if I found a way to misbehave, she would pinch the back of my knees to get my attention. Once a week, that was church. Sometimes we would watch Oral Roberts’ Tower of Power, but there was no mention of Jesus/God during the week. Forty years later, God is all I can think about. What caused my transformation? Sixteen years ago I connected to a ministry where I learned that the only way to find true intimacy with a man was to first have it with Christ. I can see your eyes crossing and your lips pursing. How can you possibly be intimate with a God you can’t see, touch, taste or feel? How can you be intimate with God when all other attempts at intimacy have resulted in broken hearts or crushed feelings? The very act of being intimate requires trust.

The process of intimacy requires getting to know someone beyond the surface; being vulnerable; being free. And you can have that with God. Think of all the time we spend on Instagram, Snapchat and Facebook, all in the pursuit of getting to know someone. Think of all the energy we pour into That same energy spent in God’s word, walking with Him, talking with Him, can result in similar, if not better, results. Those moments when all is quiet, the sun hasn’t risen, the house isn’t yet awake, it’s in THOSE moments where God can be found. It’s in THOSE moments when the greatest intimacy between you and God can occur. But you have to surrender your heart to it. You have to surrender your mind to it. Throw away every preconceived notion of God (faceless being in the sky waiting to throw lightning bolts of anger at his disobedient children), and come to him with a child’s curiosity and longing. The peace you will find there, wrapped in His arms, His voice like a whisper on the wind in your ears — that’s intimacy. And that matters.