What matters?
If you don’t believe God is good - then how will you want to come to him in intimacy. Consider a marriage where the husband is aggressive, hurtful or belligerent. A woman who is in an abusive relationship is not going to willingly come and look for intimacy. She is certainly not going to entrust her heart to him, or run to him for comfort or strength. When a husband is good to his wife, she can lean on him and she will look for that special connection that comes only from intimacy.
We were created with intimacy in mind. God is constantly revealing himself to be a good God, a loving God and an amazing God!
When we live outside of this intimacy, we are not fulfilled and we miss out on so much. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were created to live in communion with God and experience the fruit of walking and talking with him every single day. They were totally connected in the most intimate way possible with their creator. When they fell, they broke the relationship and humans became disconnected with that intimate fellowship, until Jesus came and gave us back that possibility.
Jesus' job was to restore everything that has been lost and to re-establish true intimacy with the Father for us.
Eternal life in the bible doesn't simply refer to living for ever. In John 17:3 we are told...
And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.
Our true and intimate life in Christ comes from knowing Jesus and the Father.
Paul put it this way in his letter to the Philippians (chapter 3)
10 [For my determined purpose is] that I may know Him [that I may progressively become more deeply and intimately acquainted with Him, perceiving and recognizing and understanding the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly], and that I may in that same way come to know the power outflowing from His resurrection [[a]which it exerts over believers], and that I may so share His sufferings as to be continually transformed [in spirit into His likeness even] to His death, [in the hope]
God calls us to know him. In the bible to 'know' someone was a euphemism for the act of sexual intimacy. For example Adam 'knew' his wife! It doesn't mean that he saw her and said 'Oh you're Eve'. (Especially as there was only the two of them in the garden at that point!). Instead it says Adam 'knew' his wife and she got pregnant! They were intimate and they produced fruit.
If you don't know that God is good, if you don't know how much he loves you, if you don't know how his heart is set on you, then you will not enjoy the fruit of intimacy to the full degree it is available.
The longer I have been following Jesus, the more I see a wonderful, gracious, kind loving God.. and the easier it is to run to him, lean on him, trust in him and open the depths of my soul to him in faith and trust. It is easier to obey, to follow and to put my faith in him, because of what I believe about him,.
Today, I encourage you to consider this; how intimate are you with Jesus (and if you're not sure, look at the fruit you are producing in your life). Jesus is fully available, but if there is something holding you back from being completely open to him, ask the Holy Spirit to lead you into all truth so that you may know him in all that means.
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