How close can you get to God? (Part 2)

CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE

Verses 24-26, "For the boat was already a considerable distance from the land; buffered by the waves because the wind was against it. During the fourth watch, at night, Jesus went out to them walking on the lake. When the disciples saw him walking on the lake, they were terrified. 'It's a ghost!' they said and they cried out in fear."

 

The reason God wants us to walk on water is because God wants to be intimate with us. God wants us to be close to him. True intimacy only happens when you change your perspective.

 

Prior to the storm, Jesus had just fed 5,000 men, women and children with two fishes and five loaves of bread. In this quiet, intimate and cozy setting—can't you just see it on lush green grass, on dry ground—Jesus performed a major miracle. In this miracle, it was easy for the disciples to trust God. At that moment, something had to happen. It was easy to trust God on dry ground, but not in the middle of the ocean. It was easy to trust God on dry ground, but now they had to trust God in the midst of a storm.

 

Have you been there before? It is easy to trust God on dry ground, but it's harder to trust God in the midst of the storms of our lives. It was easy to trust God when they had control, but now, in the middle of nowhere, they had to put all their trust in God. They had to begin to change their perspective. It is easy to trust God on the mountaintop, but it's harder to trust God in the valleys of our lives. They had to change their perspective on what intimacy was.

 

In these past few months, I've begun to have a different understanding about intimacy. It has radically shifted and changed my life. I've always equated spiritual intimacy with prayer and fasting and quiet times with God, but I've come to realize that while these are avenues to God and they are a means to get to God, they are not the end to getting to ultimate intimacy with God.

 

Even in people relationships, we regulate intimacy with cards and candy and roses that die in two days. Those are just means; but, those aren't the ends that get to ultimate intimacy. True intimacy with God is like any other relationship. Eugene Peterson recently wrote in his article entitled, "Spirituality for the Wrong Reasons," and I quote: "In marriage, you don't feel intimate most of the time. Intimacy isn't just a mystical emotion, but it's a way of life. Intimacy is a life of openness, honesty and certain transparency. We are too quick to lump all intimacy together as a mystical emotion."

 

Sometimes I'm closest to my wife, Jeannette, while we're living in tension. I'm closer to my wife in the everyday struggles of life. I'm closest to my family when I pick up the kids from school, when I'm doing the dishes, when I'm taking out the trash—even when I'm coming to work. I'm close to God in those times of struggle. I'm closest to God, not in the quiet times, but when I'm trying to juggle and keep all this stuff together. Have you been there before?

 

We don't always find intimacy in the quiet times of our lives, but most of the time we find intimacy in the chaotic and confusing moments when we can't even hear God, but we trust that God is right there with us. God, right now, is so excited about our striving to get close to him. I realize that God really isn't concerned with how well I preach or pray, but God is more concerned with how committed I am as a husband, how committed I am as a father, and how committed I am as a co-worker. God isn't concerned about how well we can do things but with how willing we are to live out the calling and tasks he has placed in our lives. I had to change my perspective on intimacy.

 

God wants a deeper level of intimacy. God isn't just concerned about our warm, fuzzy feelings, but God is more concerned about our total welfare. God is more concerned about our total being of living out our passionate call for him. It is easy to trust and love God in the quiet times of our lives, but what about the times when things are chaotic and crazy? It is easy to get close to God when everything is going well; but what about when things are all-out crazy?

 

Sometimes in order to have a closer relationship with someone, you have to keep pursuing one another even when you're not feeling it. In order to get closer to God, sometimes you have to be willing to pursue God, even when you're not feeling it, when you're not feeling like a sold-out Christian, when you're not feeling like you are totally holy. When you pursue God, then you can understand that God is with us even in the chaotic times of our lives.

 

Excerpted from: HOW CLOSE CAN I GET TO GOD? by Mike Bowie (article for March 6th, 2005)

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