Two things stood out to me that Mr. Chan said in this part of our book today….<\/p>\n
First: God desires true intimacy with each of us, and that comes only when we trust Him enough to be fully transparent and vulnerable.<\/strong><\/p>\n I think you would agree with me that it is really hard to be fully transparent and vulnerable in this world today. When we open ourselves up like that we often get hurt. I know I have. So we hold back. We don’t trust and we lose that special something called intimacy with that other person because we just don’t want to be hurt again.<\/p>\n When I had my first baby back in 1979, I felt so blessed and amazed by her! First I KNEW she was a gift from God. Second I was responsible for her every need in life. It was sometimes overwhelming when I thought about it. But it was a joy, too! She trusted me to feed her, to clothe her, play with her, and love her. My heart almost burst with joy as she learned each new thing. And when she learned to say “mama”— WOW!! When she would run to me when she was hurt or because she wanted to be with me, I almost cried! I felt so proud to be her mom. Those of you who have children, nieces, or nephews (or even pets) know what I’m talking about.<\/p>\n Isn’t that how we should be with God? He says to come to Him\u00a0like a child. My baby was a good example of why He said that. He wants us to be dependent on Him. He will not let us down. He will not hurt us. He only wants what’s best for us, just like I wanted only the best for my child. He will be our Provider, our Helper, our Father. He will love us unconditionally no matter what.\u00a0 He wants us to be obsessed with him. We can run to Him when we are hurt or let down by this world.\u00a0 We can open up fully and tell Him all our hurts and how terrible we are, He won’t mind!<\/p>\n I believe how to do that is in the second thing Mr Chan\u00a0 hit me with:<\/p>\n God wants His word to be a delight to us, so much so that we meditate on it day and night.<\/strong><\/p>\n If we are studying His word—spending time with Him outside the 40 minutes on Sunday morning, getting to know Him on a daily basis—we learn that He is faithful, loving, and trustworthy. We learn that He is there for us at any given moment. Then we have a real intimate relationship with Him that He so desires and is so fulfilling to us. We have real joy that only comes from our Lord. We look forward to reading His word and getting to know more and more about this Father we have. We want<\/strong> to spend time with Him. We want<\/strong> to tell Him everything. We want<\/strong> to live in His continual grace, and we want<\/strong> to sing His praises all day long.<\/p>\n Does that sound obsessive?? I hope so!!!<\/p>\n In Christ,<\/p>\n Donna<\/p>\n