We all have a place that deeply hungers for God, a place that will not be satisfied by anything else. In Psalm 42:1-2 David said As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God? Is there anything that can satisfy us the way God can? The society we live in is so quick to move on to the next thing and the next thing, searching for what does satisfy. Jesus declares in John 6:35 that He is the bread of life and that whoever comes to Him will never go hungry, and whoever believes in Him will never be thirsty, for he alone can satisfy us.
In our salvation we have relationship with Christ, it’s automatic. But fellowship, intimacy is not automatic, it needs to grow. John 17:21 in the MSG - The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind— Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you, So they might be one heart and mind with us. That’s intimacy right there, you in me and I in you, we can’t tell the difference between the two, of one mind and heart. Notice the start of this verse, “the goal is for all of them” it’s what we’re aiming for, what we run towards. We need to seek God and know him and then we fall more in love, one fans the other, and we grow in intimacy.
Intimacy takes time and discipline and faithfulness and perseverance. You need to cultivate it and be intentional about it. It is not automatic, it takes time and commitment. Something in our society of instant gratification can be really hard for us to grasp. But like every other relationship we have, intimacy takes time to grow and we need to work at it.
John 15: 4-8 - 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
So we need to remain in Him. We do not seek intimacy for our own sakes but also that we bear fruit and are a blessing to others. Andrew Murray a minister from
South Africa wrote a book Abide in Christ. In this he writes “beautiful image of the believer, abiding in Christ! He not only grows in strength - the union with the Vine becoming ever surer and firmer - he also bears fruit, yea, much fruit. He has the power to offer to others that of which they can eat and live. Amid all who surround him he becomes like a tree of life, of which they can taste and be refreshed. He is in his circle a center of life and of blessing, and that simply because he abides in Christ and receives from Him the Spirit and the life, of which he can impart to others. Learn therefore, if you would bless others, to abide in Christ, and that if you do abide, you shall surely bless! As surely as the branch abiding in a fruitful vine bears fruit, so surely, yea, much more surely, will a soul abiding in Christ with His fullness of blessing be made a blessing!”. Isn’t that what we all want to be a blessing to all around us, to offer them life, to taste and be refreshed?
Christ calls us to be lovers of him, a people who are captured by Him, utterly devoted and completely abandoned to Him and His cause. The first and greatest commandment, Mark 12:30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. We are to love God with our choices, emotions, thoughts, speech, actions, time, and resources, all that we are, to be consumed. We choose to love God, to draw near to Him, to pursue Him and that is what He desires of us.
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