Even Better - Cultivating and Maintaining a Lifestyle of Intimacy (Part 3)

Let’s go back into the Song of Solomon (I wrote about it in part 2 – read that first or this won’t make sense). The first place is more about her, “My beloved is mine, and I am his.” The second place she realizes it’s not all about her and she puts the beloved first, “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine.” In the third place she says, “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.” (Chapter 7:10). This is the deepest place of intimacy. She is his, but not just so he can be hers too – but she is his and is fully surrendered to him because she wants to and knows that his whole desire is for her.

Like I said before though, all three places are good, just keep moving towards the third one! You should be able to look at this story at any point in your life and see the cycle that you’re in (or between) and know where you need to go. It is a really helpful way to gauge yourself!

So, now I’m going to share some basic ways to maintain intimacy/relationship with God, but before I go on, know these are not a bunch of rules on how to do that. Think of God as a friend. It’s not a rule for me to hang out with my friends, to read their status updates and blogs, or to listen to what they say. I do those things because they’re my friends, I love them, I want to, and it’s fun! So, with God – hanging out with Him, reading His word, writing down what He says...they’re not rules or three things to do to stay intimate with God. It may feel like it sometimes, but stick with it! It should lead to a lifestyle and something you do because you love Him, are interested in Him, and you want to (this would be that third place!)

Some practical things to do:

Spend time with Him - You only become good friends or intimate with someone if you spend time with them.

• Set aside time to get in His presence and to let Him talk to you (remember to listen...) and talk to Him.

Bible - God is The Word (John 1:1). We need to know him as The Word too!

• Start reading it. If you don’t know where to start, get on our Bible reading program and jump into the Bible reading blogs.

Sacrifice - You can’t have intimacy without sacrifice.

• Give God the best of your time - what are you willing to sacrifice in order to hear Him?

Faithfulness - Be faithful with what He gives you so He can give you more. He holds us accountable for the things He says to us and shows us. If we aren’t faithful with what He’s saying He will stop talking so it won’t kill us – it’s justice.

• Write down what He says.
• Pray into it.
• Do it.

There you have it! The main thing is that God becomes our everything. The focus isn’t what or how much we do, how many chapters in the Bible we read, or how many hours we pray. The focus is to turn our heart so towards God that He becomes our world and nothing else matters besides His voice and being close to Him, and we live each day knowing that “I am my beloved’s, and his desire is toward me.”

If you have any questions or need help with any of this along the way don’t hesitate to ask! Does anyone have any other ways that they cultivate and maintain intimacy with God? What’s your plan to get closer to Him? Or what have you done in the past?

God Tweets. Do You? - Cultivating and Maintaining a Lifestyle of Intimacy (Part 1)
Like Hide and Seek - Cultivating and Maintaining a Lifestyle of Intimacy (Part 2)
Even Better - Cultivating and Maintaining a Lifestyle of Intimacy (Part 3)