What would it look like to know God’s footsteps? Intimacy with the Lord should be at the top of our priority list… is it on yours?
Living Intimately: This is Living Part 3
Diana Marie Arnold
If you’re anything like me, your family has a sort of secret language. My brother can do this funny nod and we’ll all bust out laughing because we’ve had an entire conversation without any words. I’m sure you have your own secret language with your family. I’m sure that if your phone rings at 6:37 AM each morning, you know without even looking that it’s your mom! I can differentiate each member of my family by the way their footsteps sound. Now that is intimacy, right!?
What if we thought of our relationship with the Lord in the same way?
The only reason that we know our family members like the back of our hands is because we’ve taken the time to get to know them, study them, talk to them, and spend time together. John 10:27 shows us that we actually have that same exact right to intimacy with Jesus:
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” – John 10:27
As believers, we are His sheep, we belong to Him by being in relationship with Him. Placing faith in Jesus is more than just participating in ministry, being a good person, or going to church. We become His sheep when we enter into a relationship with Him, by placing our faith in Jesus. We are no longer slaves, but we’re heirs to the Kingdom of God.
Check this out:
“But when the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God.” – Galatians 4:4-7
We are part of God’s family, adopted, and given the privilege to be in an intimate relationship with the King of Kings! When we put our faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit takes residence in our hearts and begins the work of conforming us into the image of Christ (2 Thessalonians 1:13). He kindly rests His hand on our deadened souls and causes us to want new things, things we never thought we’d want before. He gently works on the wiring of our hearts to reflect His desires.
How beautiful and intimate is that relationship? God knows you, but the question is, how well do you know Him? If Jesus walked into your house, would you know it was Him by the sound of His footsteps? The way you know your family members or your best friend’s footsteps?
The only way that we can know God like the back of our hand is by knowing His character. And we can only know His character by spending time with Him – in His Word, in prayer, in worship.
If the enemy isn’t tempting us with sin cycles, he’s usually getting after us by making us so busy and so distracted that we just don’t have time for God. The busier we are, the further away we get from spending time getting to know who He is. Christianity isn’t just meant to be a decision to trust in Him so that we are safe for eternity. Although, if that were all it was, that would be more than enough of a reason for us to worship all of our days but Jesus wants more! He wants to walk with us, to be in relationship, to enter into fellowship with us. But we can’t have a personal relationship with Him if we don’t know how to discern His voice from the rest. The more we get into the Word of God, the more confident we become in His character, and the more clearly we can hear His voice. The invitation for intimacy is right in front of us; we just have to create the space in our lives and our hearts to accept it.
John 10 says that He is our Good Shepherd, He is to be trusted. So many times, I have been overcome with anxiety because I’m not sure how a situation will play out. It’s like I get myself so overwhelmed with the perspective that things could go wrong that I take God out of the picture completely. Without trust, it’s impossible to have faith. The more that I practice trust, the easier it becomes because I find that everything that I’m afraid of happening is actually still going to be ok, because God is GOOD all the time, and all the time, God is good. He is a GOOD Shepherd, He can be trusted.
A shepherd might have his sheep in a pasture for a few days, and they might really love that pasture. But all of a sudden, the shepherd wants to move to another pasture, the sheep might not understand why they need to leave such a perfect pasture, but they know that their shepherd has their best in mind. They know he’s a good shepherd. Sheep don’t negotiate or ignore their shepherd; they just go wherever he leads. They know he’s leading them to greener pastures, that he can see the bigger picture, and that in the end, they’ll be better off following him than staying where they are.
I love that we are compared to sheep and that Jesus is our Good Shepherd. It really takes the pressure off of us, when you think about it. We don’t have to carry the weight of the world on our shoulders because He’s already conquered it. He has already gone before you and prepared good works so that you might walk in them. When we listen to Him, when we obey His will for our lives, we will walk into that path that He has pre-lit for us.
I love that He doesn’t just want to save us, He wants to walk with us. He wants a friendship. He wants intimacy. And whenever we feel like a lost sheep, all we have to do is come back to our Shepherd by spending time with Him. He’s always there, arms wide open, waiting to redeem us, waiting to remind us of who we are. Waiting to fill our lungs once again and say, my darling, let me lead, let me show you the way, this is how to dance. This is living.
This Is Living Series
This four-part series is titled “This Is Living” because when we release the things of this world that we are trying to find fulfillment in and decide to place our lives into the hands of the Father, then we can truly come to life. We once were lost and now we’re found. Life becomes so much more about Him than it is about us. When we come alive in Him we can truly say, this is living.
Other posts in this series:
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