Over the past few days some
words of Henry Blackaby have been echoing through my
mind continuously. They’re a short expression he uses frequently in his book Experiencing God, namely, “never bypass
intimacy.”
He’s referring to the tendency
we have to skip meeting with God each day. That’s what a bypass is, after all –
a route that allows you to miss or skip around something else. A country town
near where I was raised has a distinctive “bypass” that allows through traffic
to avoid the cluttered main street. It’s a great thing. It saves time and the
frustration of having to negotiate threatening intersections.
But not all bypasses are good
for us. That’s certainly true of bypasses that take us around regular meetings
with God. Yet they are a very common variety. There’s nothing easier than to
begin (or end) a hectic day with the thought that we are too busy (or tired) to
spend time with God – after all, he knows and understands!
But there’s more to this
statement than a warning against not spending time with God. Blackaby is stressing the need not to bypass intimacy. He has something special in mind when he
speaks of that. He’s not referring just to the disciplines of worship, Bible
reading and prayer; he’s talking about really meeting with God and conversing
with him. That’s what intimacy involves. It means more than a quick “hello” or
a routine conversation. Intimacy is about letting someone else into your heart,
about sharing your inner secrets. It’s about unburdening your hurts, cares,
special joys and needs. And it involves listening to theirs too. Intimate
relationships are typically two-way and involve deep heart communion.
That kind of relationship is
possible with God. The Psalms of the Old Testament show this is so. But
intimacy with God is not something that we can experience at the click of our
fingers. We can’t turn it on and off at will. A genuine meeting with God
requires that we seek him earnestly with our whole heart. It demands a
readiness to wait on God, to get our hearts right with God, to listen carefully
to what he might be saying to us through his Spirit and Word. Often that kind
of interaction can’t be rushed. And it usually requires a calm and quiet spirit.
Because of that, it’s easy to bypass – to avoid altogether, or, more commonly,
to take the easier route of substituting routine religious activities.
We lose something invaluable when
we do this. There is nothing like an intimate encounter with the Lord to renew
our strength (Isaiah 40:31). It’s in those quiet conversations with him that we
often find the inner peace and wisdom that we need. They are the fountain from
which the activities of an effective life flow.
I had a fresh experience of this
inner renewal this morning (Friday). I woke early aware that I had a
challenging day before me. I had to prepare sermon on a difficult passage in
the book of Ezra; then I needed to write this Insight, plan and prepare two worship
services, get ready for a study tomorrow morning and a Presbytery examination
this coming week, meet with a neighbouring minister, and take my son John to
his music lesson later in the afternoon.
My “Things to Do” list looked formidable.
As tempting as it was to
bypass establishing intimacy with the Lord, I didn’t. Instead I took time to
read, pray and study as usual. And in the process I found myself meeting with the
Lord closely and personally. He greatly
refreshed me through a verse in John chapter two and deepened my understanding
of discipleship through a reference to Romans 6:13 in the book I was reading. I
felt nourished and ready for the day. Best of all, I had already talked with
him about all that lay before me and knew that he was at hand to work with and
through me to accomplish his purposes.
That’s what intimacy with
Jesus is about. It is the greatest privilege we can have. And it’s
life-changing. Bruce Wilkinson, author of several books and founder of the Walk through the Bible programme,
identities the turning point in his life when he determined to get up at a set
hour each morning and to “search for God until I found him.” From that point on
his ministry expanded in directions he could never have imagined. The same
thing can happen for us too if we make his resolution our own.