Good day
Another way to develop intimacy with God is through prayer.
Below are some scriptures where the Bible mentions prayer:
Matthew 6:5 - And when you pray …
Matthew 6:9 - This, then, is how you should pray …
Mark 11:24 - For this reason I am telling you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you, and you will [get it]
Jude 20 - But you, beloved, building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit
Colossians 4:2 - Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful.
Romans 12:12 - Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer
Ephesians 1:16 - do not cease to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers
Colossians 1:9 - For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you
Ephesians 6:18 - And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
1 Thessalonians 5:17 - Pray continually
1 John 5:13-15 - These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.
Based on the above scriptures, God's word is quite clear that we should be praying. The encouragement I take from this is that God would never ask us to pray if He had no intention of answering.
Now this is not a series about prayer, and without having to over complicate this message by teaching on the subject, I'd simply like to define prayer as communication with God - especially in the context of this series about developing intimacy with God where the focus is on relationship.
Now I haven't come across a scenario where two people claim to be in a relationship but have no communication of any kind whatsoever. That just doesn't sound right ... Rather we know that any successful relationship requires communication ... meaning we have to speak.
This simple act of just talking to God may seem obvious for some but there may be people out there who may find it difficult. One of the reasons for this is because they could be over complicating the process whereas the truth of the matter is that we don't have to make this technical ... If you can take the time to speak to the people you love, then you can do so with God as well.
If you feel comfortable enough to tell them about the times you faced difficulties, doubts, worries, fears, weaknesses, pain, discouragement - as well as the times you experienced success, happiness and joy, etc. - even about your dreams or goals or the decisions you may be facing - then you can do the same with God (1 Peter 5:6-7, James 1:5-8, Proverbs 3:5-6, Psalm 145:18-19).
The difference with God is that we don't have to think about whether the timing is right or not, whether He's available or busy, is He awake or sleeping, whether He's even interested or not. - Rather we get to speak to Him freely, whenever and wherever we want to ... The Bible even tells us in Hebrews 4:14-16 to come boldly before Him:
"Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need."
This tells me that God came up with the idea of having us come before Him - it's not even like we asked for it (we certainly don't deserve it) - and yet He makes Himself available to us ... God wants us to come to Him! ... God is literally waiting on us to talk to Him ... There's such freedom in knowing that.
This is definitely one of the easiest ways of drawing closer to God and developing our intimacy with Him.
Amen