INTIMACY WITH GOD

“Show me Your ways, O Lord;
Teach me Your paths.
Lead me in Your truth and teach me,
For You are the God of my salvation;
On You I wait all the day.”  (Psalm 25:4-5 NKJV)

It would seem that admission to the inner circle of deepening intimacy with God is the outcome of deep desire. Only those who count such intimacy a prize worth sacrificing anything else for are likely to attain it. If other intimacies are more desirable to us, we will not gain entry to the circle… The place on Jesus’ breast is still vacant, and open to anyone willing to pay the price of deepening intimacy. We are now, and will be in the future, only as intimate with God as we really choose to be.

-- J. Oswald Sanders in “Enjoying Intimacy with God”


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LONGING FOR GOD

“O God, You are my God,
    and I long for You.
My whole being desires You;
    like a dry, worn-out, and waterless land,
    my soul is thirsty for You.”  (Psalm 63:1 GNT)

I want deliberately to encourage this mighty longing after God. The lack of it has brought us to our present low estate. The stiff and wooden quality about our religious lives is a result of our lack of holy desire. Complacency is a deadly foe of all spiritual growth. Acute desire must be present or there will be no manifestation of Christ to His people.

-- A. W. Tozer in “The Pursuit of God”

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