King David was known as ‘a man after God’s own heart’, yet he came to a time in his life when he had lost the joy of serving the Lord. He had lost that close companionship. In Psalm 51:12 he says:
(Psa 51:12) Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation
When he felt lost and cut off from God, he knew who to turn to. He went back to God and asked for that close relationship to be restored.
Our Lord desires to have a personal, intimate relationship with us. He cares so much about us that He is willing to woo us, to call us, to speak words of love to us. All with the purpose of spending time alone with us.
So many women in this world go through life feeling unloved and unwanted, but that is not God’s plan, it’s not His desire for His daughters. He wants us to willingly turn to Him, not just when something is going wrong but just to turn to Him in love. He wants our desire for Him to be as great as His towards us. He loves us and is willing to draw us to Himself
Jer 31:3 Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee..
One of the most beautiful portions of scripture dealing with love is of course the Song of Solomon. Just listen to these words:
Son 2:16 My beloved is mine, and I am his
Son 7:10 I am my beloved's, and his desire is toward me.
Yes this is a beautiful example of a husband’s love towards his wife but it is also a view of God’s love and desire towards us.
Time and again we see in the Word, where God desires for us to come away from our busyness and take time to be alone with Him. He knows we are busy but He also knows that we need that time of refreshing, that time of just laying down our burdens and cares and lying in His arms.
Son 2:10 My beloved spoke, and said unto me, Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away.
The Lord is asking us to rise up from the every day chores, rise up from the cares and concerns and go away with Him. Be alone with Him so that He can refresh us. So He can speak words of love to us. So He can cherish us and care for us intimately.
One of my favourite books in the Bible is the book of Hosea. Hosea was a prophet that the Lord told to go and marry a prostitute. I wonder how well received our modern day pastors would be if they said God told them to marry a prostitute. But Hosea’s wife was meant to symbolize sinful Israel. Israel had prostituted herself by worshipping false idols and turning away from God.
Just like David, other things had become more important, to Israel, than God. God’s people no longer had the close, intimate relationship with Him that He desires. God’s heart was hurt. His beloved no longer wanted Him. Israel put her eyes on everything else but God. And Israel had lost it’s joy.
Yet, we see God’s nature and His desire towards His people in
Hos 2:14 So I am going to take her into the desert again; there I will win her back with words of love.
To think that the God of all creation would care so much for a rebellious people that He would be willing to woo them, to speak words of love to them to bring them back to Himself, is just amazing. I don’t believe we can ever begin to understand how deep His love is for us.
Many times because God loves us so much He has to take us into a wilderness, so we will turn to Him and call on Him in our time of need. It is those wilderness times when we can choose to curse God or to seek Him with our whole heart. He has promised that when we do search for Him, He will be found. He wants to be found because He wants that personal, intimate relationship with us.
Jer 29:13 And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.
We see the wilderness times of our lives as being trials and tribulations, but often they are times that God allows so He can be alone with us. And so we will leave the other things that we have prostituted ourselves with. Nothing can take God’s place in our lives. He must be number one, our first priority, our first love. After all that is what love is: putting the other person first, like He did when He went to the cross for us.
Eze 20:35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face.
Often it is only during those wilderness times that we do speak with God in an intimate way, face to face. But God wants to have a daily, relationship with us.
Psalm 17:8 says:
Keep me as the apple of the eye, hide me under the shadow of thy wings, another version says it this way:
Psa 17:8 Keep me as the pupil, the daughter of the eye; hide me under the shadow of Your wings,
God is addressing his daughters. The “daughter of the eye” or “the apple of the eye”, both talk about one who is favoured or cherished. One who is special. God’s plan for this favoured one is to protect and cherish this daughter and keep her close to Him, “under the shadow of His wings”. God wants us close to Him. He wants us to know the protection we can have when we remain close to him.
But to have this close relationship we must consciously set aside time to be alone with God. Alone, without the phone, without interruptions, without a schedule. Alone waiting on Him to 'speak words of love” to us.
Mat 6:6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
Did you notice the intructions? We are to enter into a private place and close the door, when we go to meet with God. We need to close the door on distractions so we are not compromising our time with Him. He deserves our full attention. Only then can we be in a truly intimate or close relationship with God.
Rev 3:20 Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.
Both of these verses tell us that if we will seek the Lord, He will be found by us. An intimate relationship with God is possible. He desires us to have it, now we have to decide if we are willing to do our part and desire the same thing. Are we willing to set aside time to be alone with God? Are we willing to go into the Holy of Holies, alone with our beloved?
I don’t want to have a wilderness experience before I have an intimate relationship with Him. I would much rather live day by day under the shadow of His wings, walking close by Him, being near His heart.
To have that type of relationship there are certain things we must do. First we must repent of any sin and wrongdoing. God is holy and therefore we must be holy. Secondly, we must consciously set aside time to be with our Lord to get to know Him, to talk with Him, and to listen to Him. And finally we need to put all other things into perspective and give God His rightful place. Half of the work to establishing an intimate relationship with Him is already done for us: He desires to have one with us. The other half is up to us: Do we desire the same thing?
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