Seeking Intimacy with God - Psa 51:10

Seeking Intimacy with God

February 6, 2010

Psalm 51:10

Introduction

• As a youngster I would seek a closer walk with God
• I wanted to be so close to him, but never seemed to be able to quite reach Him
• I have been on a lifelong search for intimacy with God
• This absence of intimacy affected my prayer life
• I would pray, but without the intimacy for which I was searching
• This evening we are going on a journey
• A journey in search of intimacy with God
• We will start from the outside and work our way in towards that total closeness

Leave sin behind

• Humbly recognize we need help
  • Know that I do not have it all together
  • My sins create distance between me and God
  • So I need to ask for forgiveness for all I know I am doing wrong, or am neglecting to do
  • Whatever is not of faith is sin - Rom 14:23
• Psalm 139:23-24 Search me o God
  • I may be doing things that are wrong, unknowingly
  • I may not consider the sin as something important
  • Yet it may be something of myself that is standing in the way of true intimacy with God
  • David had a pure heart who wanted to always be close to God
  • God is a holy God, and he wants us to be holy too
  • 1 Pet 1:16 Be holy for I am holy
  • Rom 6:13-19 yield to righteousness

Get rid of the walls

• Often in life, we build walls around ourselves to protect us from harm
• I once was shown a wall I had built around myself
• It was a brick wall, and it was getting higher by the minute
• What are the walls that separate you from God
• Do you see yourself as being protective of your innermost person?
• What does the wall look like?
• Where is God in relationship to the wall?
• Is he on the inside, or the outside?
• What is the name of the wall? Is an emotion associated with it?
• Can you take one brick of the wall, and give it to Jesus?
• Take another one and do the same
• This emotion has been a burden to you
• Jesus said come to me all you who are weary and heavyladen, and I will give you rest
• What events caused these bricks to be laid?
• What hurt has been locked up? Take that brick and give it to Jesus
• Unload the emotion that is attached to that memory, and give it to God
• Psa 55:22 - Cast all your cares upon him
• Look at yourself in your minds eye, and look at the wall.
• How much of the wall has now gone?
• Invite Jesus to help you dismantle the wall
• Piece by piece, give the bricks to Him to take care of
• When the wall has been removed, invite Jesus into that space
• Open your heart to God

Allow God to speak

• Through the Word - one way God speaks to us
• God is a God who communicates
• One way is through the words of the Bible
• John 17:17 Thy Word is truth
• The Word - Gr. Logos, one of the titles of our Lord, is found only in the writings of John (John 1:1-14; 1 John 1:1; Rev. 19:13).
• Christ is the revealer of God. His role is to make God known.
• John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
• Jesus will make the Father known to us.
• As we read the Word, we learn the way the Lord thinks
• We learn how He feels about us, and the world around us
• We start to understand why God sometimes acts the way He does
• The Holy Spirit is our teacher - John 14:26 - and He reminds us of the words Jesus has spoken
• Through God's voice - another way God speaks to us
• God speaks to us through our thoughts
• It takes discernment to know if it is our own thoughts or God speaking to us
• As time goes on we will get to recognize God's voice\
• John 10:1-5
• His sheep know His voice

Write it down

• Don't let a word fall to the ground - 1 Samuel 3:19
• Write it down, journal
• Remember God's words - they are precious
• Habakkuk 2:1-3
• Sometimes the word is not for now, but for at some later time.
• But God's words are faithful and sure, be patient and wait for it.

Conclusion

• These thoughts will hopefully help you to develop a more intimate relationship with God
• If our inner walls are a problem to us, work through the process of pulling them down, bit by bit
• Maybe we need to seek help in doing this, if so, do it - it is worth a little bit of work to obtain the freedom and intimacy in our relationship with God, that we desire
• And it will free us up in our relationships with others too.