Lately, I haven’t been my happiest. With everything going on in the world around me, on top of everything going on in my personal life, I found it difficult to find joy in anything. At one point there was a time where I couldn’t remember the last time I genuinely had a good day or genuinely enjoyed myself. A lot of times, we have problems and choose not to do anything about them- that’s been me for the past few months. I finally got fed up with constantly being stressed, sad, and worn out so I decided to subtract what needed to leave my life and add what needed to enter it.
The reality is, you tend to know what you need to subtract from your life long before you get the courage to actually do it. But a lot of times, you don’t really know what you need until it shows up or you actually take the time to think about it. For me, it took me actually sitting down and thinking about what I’d been missing. It didn’t take long before I realized how tainted my relationship with God had been. As a Christian, I know that I tend to get comfortable with a mediocre relationship with my Heavenly Father, not understanding that He’s calling for a deeper relationship and a deeper intimacy with me.
Your relationship with God honestly sets the tone for all your other relationships. It’s God’s will that we have relationships centered around Him, but we can’t do that if our lives themselves aren’t centered around Him. A life centered around Christ is one filled with peace, joy, love, and security- all the things we look for in our human relationships. Everything we think we need is found in God, even the things we don’t think we need.
In this journey to increase my intimacy with God, I realized what a weight had been lifted off my shoulders. I was no longer trying to conquer my daily battles on my own, but I trusted God enough to let him handle them. My happiness was unwavering, even the slightest and simplest things made me smile and laugh. I felt more love in my spirit and just wanted everyone around me to know how I loved them but also that God loved them even more. That’s what God’s love will do for you.
Psalms 16:11 says, “You will show me the way of life, granting me the joy of your presence and the pleasures of living with you forever.” To be intimate with God on a continuous basis is to consistently be in His presence. To stay in God’s presence is to know that you’re protected, you’re comforted, and you are loved. It’s that feeling we get knowing that someone is looking out for us and has our best interest, but way better because our God is way bigger. One thing a family friend told me as I battled with sadness and confusion not knowing where to start was, start in the Word of God. People like to use scripture as motivational quotes and encouragement but the reality is that the scriptures are our reality. Start with any scripture and make it apply to your life. It’ll show who God is to you and who you are to God. Knowing His role in your life and what you mean to Him is often the first step of intimacy with the Lord. Also know the Bible says, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened- make the effort to seek after the Lord, He is waiting for you with open arms.
