INTIMATE CONVERSATIONS

Think about your closest relationships. Husband or wife. Best friend. Children. The person with whom you are most intimate. How do your conversations go? Picture riding in the car, sitting on the couch watching TV, eating a meal, shopping, doing yard work or cleaning house. What kind of things do you walk about? Do you set aside 10 minutes every morning for the times that you talk, then never talk to that person again until the next morning during you assigned conversation time?

This morning, I picked up my phone for some random reason and saw but didn’t really read a post about prayer being the time you talk to the person who loves you most. God loves us more than any of the aforementioned intimate relationships. Yet, we sometimes spend 10 minutes or less giving Him a list of the things we want from Him. Shouldn’t our conversation be as open as with the humans we love?

We know that God loves us so much that He sent His Son, God incarnate, to bear our sin to the cross to provide forgiveness for us, fellowship with Him, freedom to approach His throne with confidence. 

1 John 1:3-4 Holman Christian Standard Bible 

what we have seen and heard

we also declare to you,

so that you may have fellowship along with us;

and indeed our fellowship is with the Father

and with His Son Jesus Christ.

4 We are writing these things

so that our joy may be complete.

Romans 8:10-12 Holman Christian Standard Bible 10 Now if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, then He who raised Christ from the dead will also bring your mortal bodies to life through His Spirit who lives in you.

We have fellowship with Him, open continuous communication because He lives in us. He makes us alive. In our human relationships parents say things about their children like, “They are my life.” In dating and marriage relationships we say, “He makes me feel so alive.” “She brings me so much joy.” "They are a joy to be around.” Think about this: who is our Life? Who makes us alive?  Who gives us complete joy? We need to talk with God like we talk with our family and friends.

1 Thessalonians 5:17 Holman Christian Standard Bible 17 Pray constantly.

Praying constantly is another way of saying that we carry on an ongoing, intimate conversation with the one who is our Life and our Joy. The most genuine prayers sound something like this. "What do You want me to do in this situation.” What do You want me to learn from this?” “I didn’t mean to do or think that. Forgive me.” “That was a close call. Thank You that car missed me.” “I’m so frustrated. Help me love like You love.” What is Your purpose for me today?” “I pray Your perfect will for my family. I know Your will is perfect and mine is flawed.” “Thank you for loving me.”

In our human relationships we have disagreements, we pout, we are selfish, we lie and deceive. It shouldn’t be that way in our conversations with God. We know that He is always right. Always. We just need to acknowledge that and agree with Him. If we pout and “lose faith” when He doesn’t give us the things on our wish list, we are deceived by the devil. God is not selfish: we are the ones who are selfish and sinful. He knows our thoughts before we think them. We can’t lie to Him. Doesn’t that take a lot of pressure off the conversations we have?

Pray constantly. Talk to our loving Redeemer God, our Life, our Joy freely, confidently, with assurance, faith, love because He is our most intimate relationship.