In Touch - Apr. 7, 2009

For most of my life, I believed that the heavenly Father and I shared a relationship for my benefit. However, His primary purpose for creating intimacy with believers is to reveal Himself.

In a genuinely loving relationship, each person wants to know more about the other. As believers, we’re sometimes guilty of taking a more self-interested approach and forget that God is the rightful center of attention. Instead, we head to church or into quiet time looking for something to inspire us, motivate us, or help us.

Part of the problem is that we would like to practice our faith in the safest way possible. Bible study, prayer, and church are relatively easy, compared to stepping out in faith or enduring persecution. But to know God intimately is not a purely intellectual pursuit. A truth about the Lord is not truly ours until He works it into our daily life.

Our Father wants His children to understand how He operates. The only way to gain that knowledge is by allowing God to unveil Himself in our life experiences. That means we must be willing to go through difficulty and pain as well as happiness and peace. A man can read that the Holy Spirit is the believer’s Comforter, but he does not know this truth until he has need of solace.

The Christian life is not about feeling good and deriving the greatest personal benefit from our connection to God. Rather, the Lord builds an intimate relationship with each of His followers. In that way, He can reveal more about Himself—truth by truth—as a believer needs that knowledge. What a privilege! 

For more biblical teaching and resources from Dr. Charles Stanley, please visit www.intouch.org
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Used with permission from In Touch Ministries, Inc. © 2009 All Rights Reserved.