The One Thing That Keeps Us Away From True Intimacy With Jesus

A few weeks ago something happened in my life that changed everything for me.

I had been asking the Lord to help me grow closer in my relationship with Him for months and nothing new seemed to be happening. 

It seemed as if I was hitting a plateau in my relationship with God.

Even though I was experiencing God’s presence, it just wasn’t satisfying me the way it used to. It felt like I always needed something more.

I asked the Lord what the problem was and this is what He showed me:

He showed me all the times I came to him for something other than him.

It seemed like I was going to spend time with Him, but every time I was with Him I talked about other things. It was always about how the ministry was doing, how my finances were, how I needed more revelation, help on another sermon and so on…

I could see that His heart just wanted to be with me and nothing else. He just wanted my attention to be completely on Him. Not his blessing, not his provision, and not anything else.

When I saw it from His perspective, it broke my heart. 

It reminded me of a passage in Luke 10:38-42:

“Now it happened as they went that He entered a certain village; and a certain woman named Martha welcomed Him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, who also sat at Jesus’ feet and heard His word.  But Martha was distracted with much serving, and she approached Him and said, “Lord, do You not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Therefore tell her to help me.”

And Jesus answered and said to her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and troubled about many things. But one thing is needed, and Mary has chosen that good part, which will not be taken away from her.”

Just like Martha, I was being distracted by something that seemed good, yet took my attention away from the only one who truly mattered: Jesus.

Jesus said only “one thing is needed”.

To be at his feet with our attention on Him alone.

That’s because Jesus is all that matters and everything in Christianity is about Him.

In 1 Corinthians 2:2, Apostle Paul said: “For I decided that while I was with you I would forget everything except Jesus Christ, the one who was crucified.” (NLT)

Really, forget everything except Jesus? 

Yep.

True intimacy comes from making Jesus the Lord of your attention.

So that when you come to Him, Your mind is centered on Him alone.

He doesn’t want to share your attention with anyone or anything else.

The moment you start adding other things to Jesus is the moment you start taking away from who He actually is.

You need to make a decision to not allow anything to take a higher place in your mind than Him.

But wait a minute…

At this point, some of you might be thinking:

Surely, it can’t just be about loving Jesus…the Bible tells us we need to do works. What about the Great Commission? What about fulfilling your calling? 

I’ve got news for you:

When Christ becomes your first love in life, you will naturally start to fulfill his purpose and be obedient to his voice because of your love for him. 

It’s a result, not a goal.

Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”(John 14:15) This doesn’t mean that you need to prove your love to God by keeping his commandments. 

It means when you truly love God, you will keep his commandments as a result of that love.

Jesus also said: “I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” (John 15:5)

It doesn’t say if you try hard enough, you will bear fruit. No, it says if you abide in him and He in you, you WILL bear fruit as a result.

Without a love for Jesus alone, everything else comes to nothing. 

Let Jesus take care of everything.

When your number one goal in life is to love Jesus, You will never have to worry about anything else ever again. 

Seriously.

Just look at what the Bible says:

God promises to take care of everything as long as your eyes are set upon him alone. He will clothe you, He will feed you, He will place you in a ministry, and He will do the works through you as your partner.

Now I have a question for you:

Is Jesus your first love?

Eric Gilmore once said: 

“You may feel like you love the Lord, but I’ll tell you how you can tell if you really love the Lord with first love:

1. Nobody else and nothing else captivates your heart like him.
2. Time with him is more important to you than time with anything or anybody else.
3. His words mean more to you than the words of other people
4. His desires mean more to you than your own desires.”

If you know that Jesus isn’t your first love at this point, here’s what you do:

Simply repent and surrender everything into his hands. Ask him to change your heart and restore the first love you had for Him.

All that He is asking is for your heart to be completely sold out for him and that nothing else gets in the way of you loving him for who He is.

This is your greatest purpose in life, and everything will flow out of this one thing.

Now…

All this talk about Jesus, makes me want to go spend time with Him.

So.. uh yea, I’ll talk to you soon!