What is it God desires for you to have?  As you continue to grow spiritually, He wants you to have an intimate relationship with Him.

 

Isaiah 55:1-3

1 "Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters;

And you who have no money come, buy and eat.

Come, buy wine and milk

Without money and without cost.

 

In the ancient world, wine was used to clean wounds and help with the healing process.  Milk represented the food and strength that our bodies require.  This verse is symbolically telling us to make the simple decision to present ourselves before the real source of life – the Word of God.

 

2 "Why do you spend money for what is not bread,

And your wages for what does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,

And delight yourself in abundance.

3 "Incline your ear and come to Me.

Listen, that you may live;

And I will make an everlasting covenant with you,

According to the faithful mercies shown to David.

 

This verse is all about the Lord calling you to be near, to have that intimate relationship with Him in your soul.  Intimacy is a personal, private relationship based on someone’s complete knowledge of us, who loves us in spite of our faults and failures.  When you have that intimate relationship with Him, it will give you rest, strength, comfort and security. 

 

God wants you to be intimate with Him!  Here’s an example of this intimacy:

 

In Hosea, God told Hosea to marry a prostitute (Gomer) who would be unfaithful to him, so that he could preach about the unfaithfulness of God’s wife, Israel.  This is what He says about her (and of course about Israel):

 

Hosea 2:1-7

1 Say to your brothers, "Ammi," and to your sisters, "Ruhamah."

2 "Contend with your mother, contend,

For she is not my wife, and I am not her husband;

And let her put away her harlotry from her face

And her adultery from between her breasts,

3 Or I will strip her naked

And expose her as on the day when she was born.

I will also make her like a wilderness,

Make her like desert land

And slay her with thirst.

4 "Also, I will have no compassion on her children,

Because they are children of harlotry.

5 "For their mother has played the harlot;

She who conceived them has acted shamefully.

For she said, "I will go after my lovers,

Who give me my bread and my water,

My wool and my flax, my oil and my drink.'

6 "Therefore, behold, I will hedge up her way with thorns,

And I will build a wall against her so that she cannot find her paths.

7 "She will pursue her lovers, but she will not overtake them;

And she will seek them, but will not find them.

Then she will say, "I will go back to my first husband,

For it was better for me then than now!'

 

This is the picture of God suffering when His people are unfaithful to Him.  But in spite of Israel’s unfaithfulness, God remained faithful.  He simply desires that intimate relationship with them, and with us:

 

Hosea 2:14

14 "Therefore, behold, I will allure her,

Bring her into the wilderness

And speak kindly to her.

 

That’s God’s policy of grace, and His desire for intimacy with us.  He will take you into the wilderness!  This is the place of no support, where only God can sustain you.  God will take you to a place where your only remedy is in Him.

 

God wants us to be intimate with Him.  In this privacy and intimacy of our soul, we can pour out our joys, fears, needs, thanksgivings, and our cries for help!  What a comforting relationship!

 

Hebrews 4:14-16

14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.

15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin.

16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

 

 

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