Pursuing An Intimate Relationship With God - Sacred & Still: A 5-Day Lenten Devotional

“You must love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.” (Mark 12:30, NLT)

Let me tell you about my friend: She is among the first to help—a meal dropped off, a texted prayer, a bouquet of celebratory flowers, a cup of your favorite coffee on a hard day. She is smart about how our bodies work (and don’t) and shares her knowledge freely, always happy to talk about immunity, gut health, better sleep, and stress management. She is beautiful, inside and out. And those slight crinkles around her eyes that she’ll lament about? They reveal her love of laughter. She is a woman of substance and faith, and I am blessed to have her in my life.

She sounds lovely, doesn’t she? Here’s my point: You know about my friend, but you don’t know my friend. You don’t even know her name, and chances are good that you’ve never met her. Your knowledge of her is filtered through my perspective, meaning that you know my version of this woman based on the facts I’ve shared or omitted (intentionally or not).

The same goes for God. We can know of God. We can listen to a lifetime of sermons. We can read a library of books about who he is (or isn’t). We can know the basic outline of his story. Don’t get me wrong; it’s valuable to read books and listen to sermons about him! But unless we are regularly pursuing a one-on-one relationship with him through prayer, worship, and reading of Scripture (the Word of God), we risk knowing of him rather than knowing him. And when we rely solely on others to tell us about him, we know only their version, their perspective of God.

No matter whether we have been a follower of Jesus for one day or one hundred years, no matter how many good deeds and faith-filled tasks we have completed, no matter how knowledgeable and mature we are in our faith, we are called into an intimate, personal relationship with God.

It’s the same as any intimate relationship—parent, child, best friend, or spouse. We can skate by for a while on the foundation of our relationship and past investments of time, attention, and affection. But to maintain the strength and closeness of the connection, we need ongoing investment. If we neglect spending time and cultivating affection, the relationship suffers strain and grows distant, until we find ourselves saying things like “I thought I knew her,” “I don’t feel like I know him anymore,” or “We’ve grown apart.” With fellow humans, this requires an investment from both parties, so strained or lost relationships may be beyond our ability to fix. But with God, we are the ones who grow distant, not him.

In the book of Revelation, John writes letters to seven churches based on a vision he received from Jesus. The letters are Jesus’ words to those particular churches, but they are instructional for us and our church communities today. Jesus commends the church in Ephesus for many things, but then he says, “I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches” (Revelation 2:4-5).

It should not surprise us that, just as we invest in our earthly relationships, we must be intentional about our relationship with God. And Jesus’ rebuke to the church in Ephesus is comforting as I realize that I am not the only one who sometimes neglects intimacy with God—or who confuses doing for God with intimacy with God. My conversations with other followers of Christ also confirm that I am not alone in this. It’s easy to get so busy serving faithfully that we neglect intimacy.

The beautiful thing about intimacy with God is that there is no need to pretend. There is no need for keeping up appearances, for trying to impress, or for being anything other than who we are. It is freeing to be nothing more and nothing less than the truest version of myself before God, even as he calls me toward growth and continued maturity.

How do we maintain (or regain) intimacy with God? We’re told to go back to first things. And while your first things may look slightly different from mine, our spiritual foundation must consist of prayer, worship, and Scripture reading—all three of which build a love of God, involving all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Prayer is a cornerstone in our relationship with God. We are told to be bold, diligent, and continually in prayer (see Matthew 7:7; Luke 21:36; Romans 12:12; Ephesians 6:18). For some, prayer involves stilling our whole body in singular concentration; for others, it involves writing or journaling; and for still others, it’s often done while our body is busy with a mundane task such as laundry, washing dishes, going on a walk, or driving the car. There is no “right” way to go about the process of prayer, as long as we are in regular conversation with God.

While we often think of worship as music because that is a common format both in Scripture and in our churches, it’s really about acknowledging the goodness and sovereignty of God in and through everything we do (see Colossians 3:17). Worship is not reserved for Sunday mornings or Wednesday evenings; it’s woven all throughout our days as we move through God’s creation with appreciation and thanksgiving.

God uses Scripture to encourage, teach, refine, and grow us in our faith (see 2 Timothy 3:16). We never arrive at a point that the Word of God is no longer instructive or relevant. Our time spent in Scripture guides our days and helps us become (and remain) disciples of Jesus (see Psalm 119:105; Matthew 4:4).

The ways you and I weave prayer, worship, and Scripture into our daily rhythms will likely look different, and that’s okay. The key is not to get so busy going about the work of God that we become like those in Ephesus, forgetting our first things.

Heavenly Father, thank you for calling us back into intimacy with you. Thank you for grace and a fresh start as we find a rhythm in returning to first things. Meet us as we draw near to you for the first or the millionth time with encouragement and instruction for this season. Amen.

For Reflection: Of the three “first things” in your relationship with God—prayer, worship, and Scripture reading—which is the hardest for you to weave into your day? Which is the easiest? Why?

Sacred Rhythms: Create a plan for finding moments of worship and prayer throughout the day and set aside specific time to read your Bible—either through an app or a print copy.