Sometimes I forget how good His presence is. Its not that I don’t want it or that I don’t long for it. I do. I recognize when I haven’t had enough, when I haven’t sat at His feet and poured at my heart. There is such a difference in the Alison that spends time in intimacy with the father and the Alison that doesn’t. I’m a completely different person. I like that. I like that it takes Him filling me up to feel like myself. Sometimes we just forget. We forget how sweet His presence is.
“Let me infuse My presence into your thoughts. This awareness is vital to your spiritual well-being; it is your lifeline, spiritually speaking. I want you to walk with Me in the garden of your heart, where I have taken up permanent residence.”
We get so caught up in doing things for God and for the Kingdom that we forget to do it with Him. He called us to be co-laborers that means that we get to do it WITH Him not on our own. What if you love on one hundred orphans but you aren’t spending time with the Lord? Don’t you believe that He longs to be in fellowship with you? Do you believe that everything flows from intimacy with the father? What is intimacy with the father? For me, intimacy with the father is coming to Him with my hands open. Sometimes its coming to Him battered and bruised, at the end of my rope. Other times its coming to Him confident and bold. But all the time it is coming to Him with my hands open. I mean not holding onto anything. Expectations thrown into the wind. And when I say not holding onto anything I meant not holding onto ANYTHING. As soon as it takes dominion over you, as soon as it becomes and idol…intimacy with the father suffers.
I’m typing this as I am surrounded by leaders for the Adventures Youth trips (Adventures in Missions is pretty crazy during the summer time, to say the least) and I’m deep in thought about intimacy. I wonder if all these leaders know that the Lord longs to spend time with them, that He is waiting at the dinner table for His date. I wonder if they know that its nothing that they can do or bring to the Lord, its just them that He wants. And then it hits me, how well do I really know this truth? Do I really believe that the Lord longs for me? Little ‘ole me!?! But He does! And He longs for YOU!
Come to Him with your hands open, I promise that you won’t leave with empty hands.
