Intimacy with God

Be still and know that I am God:

Before you read this article, may I ask you to take a few moments off and –just be still…..really still.. quieten your minds …the feverish activities of the body…Now close your eyes and focus on God, His majesty and splendour, His glory and the beauty of His holiness. O! the wonder of our God to whom we belong!

Ah! How difficult this is, isn’t it? Did you find it is easy to be still? Were you able to be quiet enough to think of God? Or did other thoughts of problems keep chasing round in your mind? Did you find that thoughts of God kept fading out and your mind kept filling up with your anxious worries instead?

Take a de—e—e–p breath!   Consciously, breathe in the freshness and fullness of the Holy Spirit! Now. Slowly breathe out-breathe out consciously things that worry you and weigh heavily on your mind- breathe out all the anger bottled inside of you, the frustrations, …the hurts… Do this a few times —and R…E…L..A..X!

Battle is in our Mind

Did you know that our mind is like a computer? Through the day, every thing we see, hear, think, read, talk, touch- every one of these things are ‘keyed’ into our mind. Say in a day, we have half hour of ‘Quiet Time’? And what of the rest of the day? Thoughts of God or what he says in His Word, seldom recur-except perhaps in passing. God has given us 24 hours a day. That makes 1440 minutes. Out of this we spend about 6 hours for sleeping. That leaves us 18 hours for all that we do in the day i.e. 1.080 minutes. That means we spend about 30 minutes of God (approx.) and 1,050 minutes on everything else in the world around us!

You see, don’t you, that it is only what you ‘key’ in that comes out? That is why it is so difficult for us to concentrate on God in prayer, without the loud clamour of our own restless thoughts pushing themselves to the front of our minds, demanding attention and time!

God Designed us for Happy and wholesome Relationships

God has created and designed us for relationships primarily with Him and with one another. However, today we find that there are many things, like the TV, computer, our work, etc., which destroy our relationships. So much of our time is spent on these things that we have no time, or little time for God- to pray to him, to meditate on his Word, to just enjoy God.

But my sister, there can be no substitutes. That’s why we have so many suicides. Men and women allow love of other things, pleasures of this world etc. to replace God. They are empty within without God!

• Do we continually allow the Holy Sprit to spring within us that overflows into rivers of living water in a dry and thirsty land? Or is that ‘spring of living water’ clogged-by sin and disobedience to His Word?
• Are we pr-occupied with maintaining a polished ‘image’ outside at the cost of our inner relationship and ‘identity’ with Christ?
• Unconsciously are we beginning to put the emphasis on
• ‘doing’ rather than ‘being’.
• ‘service’ rather than ‘character’,
• our ‘work for the Lord’ rather than ‘our walk before the Lord’?.

Have we substituted ACTIVITY for INTIMACY with God.

A Searching Question

Imagine Jesus is standing before you. With deep love and compassion in His eyes, He is asking YOU a question ? Do you love Me more…? What will you answer Him? He is insisitent.. .. He awaits your answer…

In his last letter to Timothy, 2 Timothy 3:1-5, Paul, out of the passion of His heart, warns the readers: “People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Therefore they will be boastful …… proud ….. abusive …….. disobedient to parents… ungrateful… unholy … without love …… unforgiving….

In Rev. 2:1-5 the risen Lord Jesus is talking to the Church in Ephesus on just not love, but the importance of first love. You know that kind of ‘bridal love’ that longs for the other’s presence, delights in whispering attestations of love, willing to sacrifice just anything for the pleasure and approval of the loved one?

There was a day when George Mueller died, utterly died. And it was no longer George Mueller’s desires and preferences and tastes. Henceforth Christ must be all in all – “his one passion and his one love”

In closing, forgive me for asking this heart-searching question:

Are we serving God or mammon? I ask this because it is amazing how much time and importance in committees is given to fund-raising, how often so much of our conversation and thinking and aspirations are on money, on possessions, on property, on things?

Where is our heart’s real pre-occupation-on God or things of this world?

May our prayer be one of longing for a closer walk with the Lord rather than the blessings wee can receive from Him.

Moses the man of God, at the end of His life was never satisfied with all what he knew and saw of God. He prayed this passionate desire: “Lord show me Your glory!”

Here are a few simple suggestions:

1. Review your life, your goals, your occupations, your activities. Take yesterday, last month, last year.
2. Remember your promises to God when you first knew Him as your own personal Saviour. Remember the burning love you had for Jesus
3. Repent that you have allowed that love to grow ‘cold’ over the months and years, by letting your work, pleasure and leisure, squeeze out your time in God’s presence-so that you are no longer able to enjoy God.
4. Repriotize that which is really important-and stick to it. Don’t let yourself become a victim of ‘the tyranny of the ‘urgent’
5. Reschedule your activities through the day.       Cut off anything that does not contribute to what you believe God wants you to do. Be focused.
6. Resist any inroad the devil will make into your life through the ‘deeds of the flesh’ e.g. unforgiveness, critical spirit etc, Confess and receive forgiveness of God and one another.
7. Renew your mind by practicing the presence of Jesus with you not just at your ‘Quiet time’, but continually through the day. Practise the truth of Philippians 4:8 i.e let yourmind think only of good and lovely things. Reject any negative thoughts!
8. Revive your spirit by being filled with the Holy Spirit moment by moment.   Experience what it means to spill over with Jesus- and your cup will overflow!
9. Reflect and mirror Jesus by disciplining yourself to ‘crucify the flesh’ daily, so that Christ may be magnified in your body in life or through death.   Be Christ-like!
10. Represent Jesus wherever you are and wherever you go! What will Jesus do –is what you and I should also be doing! Stand up and speak out for the Truth and Values of Jesus.

May you experience the life and love of Jesus in such a way that you will thrill and be kept amazed as you develop the intimacy of your love- journey with the Lord Jesus!

-Juliet Thomas   email: julietministry@yahoo.com

President-Thara Wholistic Development of Women