Intimacy Without Shame

In my opinion, intimacy with the Lord is a bit hard to grasp.

I remember my Junior year in high school I was talking to a freshman girl. 

My school was so small the entire high school was in the same room doing most of the same work at different levels. (Gotta love private school)

Me, growing up hearing IHOP-KC's Mike Bickel and many other great speakers teachings, was pretty knowledgable with the picture of the Bride and Bridegroom relationship between Jesus and the church.

As I was saying, this freshman girl and I were having a discussion about Jesus and I referred back to what I had remembered about the Bride and the Bridegroom.

Immediately she looked at me with a terrified face.

In my younger years, I was a know it all Jesus freak who thought she had it all together. (I couldn't have been more wrong.) So my responses were harsh and unloving, always.

I looked at her and said "well I don't mean we have sex with Him of course."

She looked terrified, still, (probably because I used the word sex and God in the same sentence) but a little less freaked out, she sighed in relief and we continued our heated discussion that probably ended up nowhere.

How many of us can say that that was our immediate reaction when we first heard that Jesus was our Bridegroom?

Wouldn't that make the men gay? Or wouldn't that just be really inappropriate, we can't think about God like that.

Really it's silly, but you know it's true.

Lately I've kind of been going back to that.

What exactly does being intimate with God look like?

There's always that hidden paranoia of not wanting to disrespect who He is and all that, but why do we feel such a reserve with Him?

I know I feel perfectly at rest cuddling up next to my mom, holding her hand, kissing her cheek, being intimate with her.

Is that in any way abnormal or inappropriate? 

Absolutely not.

I love her and she loves me.

She gave birth to me and she's the one person that's stuck by my side through every thing.

Kinda like God, huh?

Except He was the one who designed you in the womb, mom just carried you.

Why should intimacy with God be any different then snuggling up to your mom or dad being vulnerable and trusting?

When you can comfortably hug and embrace someone or hold their hand and tell them you love them, there's a huge element of trust that plays a part in that.

I realize that some people wouldn't consider physical touch a favored love language of theirs, but if you're a human being with any kind of emotions, you love a good hug from someone special to you.

The Song of Solomon is one of the most intimate books in scripture.

How man people have you heard say they don't really read Song of Solomon?

It's too weird. It's not valuable. I'd rather read other stuff about Jesus.

Well I'm just gonna say, if Song of Solomon made it into the Bible after so many other books got rejected from it, then why on earth would we assume it's unimportant?

Song of Solomon also isn't just thrown in there to tell us a cool love story between cool people.

It's there as a beautifully painted word picture of what pure undefiled intimacy between a bride and groom is.

Maybe a good way to explain godly intimacy is to explain what it's for sure NOT.

Intimacy is not lust.

It's not shameful.

It's not sketchy or impure.

It's not abnormal or forbidden.

Intimacy is what God has created you for.

He wanted people that would choose to love Him.

He wanted people that would desire intimacy with Him.

If you've grown up in the prayer movement like I have, this whole intimacy thing has probably been over talked about or worn out.

It's become a normal thing to say.

"Yeah, God loves intimacy, cool, now what?"

Now what?

Now what, what?

What else is there really?

I know there's things we've gotta do, but doesn't that all come from a place of intimacy?

And aren't a lot of us still kind of paranoid about what intimacy is?

Isn't there a natural reserve when it comes to thinking about intimacy with God?

Let's just say that if there wasn't a natural reserve from intimacy, this whole world would look a whole lot different.

If we actually grasped intimacy, there wouldn't be a struggle in knowing who you are or why you're here.

You know the saying "love is blind?"

Well what if that's a good thing?

What if being in love with God blinded you from the things that hold you back from being you?

What if this blinding intimacy actually sets you free?

What if innocent, pure, childlike, lovesick lover, intimacy was the one thing that pushes the veil away from you and heaven?

Be free to be intimate without feeling shame or questioning it's legitimacy.

Come to Him like a child ignorant from the worlds darkness and fall completely in love!