Good morning, world. Things are looking pretty good from the front porch of my farm in Virginia today. It looks harmless enough outside this morning, but I can hear the freezing rain hitting the windows and snow is on the horizon. So, I met with the Living God inside where it’s warm and where I can enjoy the view; and I gave Thanks for it all. My time with Him was precious this morning, and it felt more like I was meeting with my Best Friend than the Ultimate Authority over my Life. We have an Intimate Relationship and it shows; especially on days like today. My Life is not merely about striving to DO His Will…my Life IS His Will, and the closer I draw to Him, the more inclined He is to use me to bring Glory to Himself. Isn’t that the way you look at your Relationship with Him too?

It’s funny how often people quote comforting Words from the Bible, but it doesn’t look much like they believe them at all…at least not in the depths of the heart where the Intimate Relationship with God is. Some people try so hard just to obey all the Rules, and they do a pretty good job of it overall. But they remain so focused on walking the Straight Line, that they forgot about Intimacy with the One who Wrote the Rules in the first place. Their “obsession” with the Rules out-shadows the Message of Redemption, and they lose the Joy of their Faith in the process. They’re just good Rule followers.

Then there are others that cling to the Message of Forgiveness so strongly that they don’t seem to have any Rules at all. They free-roll through Life, doing pretty much whatever they want to do, because they know that all that have to do is “ask and it shall be forgiven”; but they have no Intimacy with the One who Died for them in the first place. No more than a rebellious child in perpetual rule-breaking mode can have an intimate relationship with mom & dad; neither can we when it comes to God. There’s a sweetness to Intimacy with God, and when we “go there”, there is also a Desire to please Him, and a natural sense of remorse when we disappoint Him. All the “rich nuggets” of Faith can ONLY be found in an Intimate Relationship with the Living God.

When we’re in “good standing” with the Living God, and the heart is in Intimacy-Mode, we find FREEDOM, and LIBERTY and DELIGHT because we are in His Will. We don’t need to spend our entire Life on our knees begging for answers or waiting for Direction, because we KNOW, through the Intimacy of our Relationship, that if we get headed in the wrong direction; He’l be sure to Redirect. It’s through the Intimate Relationship with the Living God that we realize that we don’t merely strive to DO His Will…that we ARE His Will. We don’t sweat the small stuff in Intimacy Mode, because we know that He cares about every single tiny little piece of our Lives and absolutely NOTHING will slip past Him and His Heart for us. I have an Intimate Relationship with the Living God and it shows. I Walk like it…I Talk like it…I Live like it and I Love like it. I AM His Will.

How about you?