Intimacy with Christ

Luke 24:13-53. They had just left the scene of the crucifixion. They were talking and declaring their thoughts to one another. Jesus drew near to them, but it says they didn’t recognize and experience His presence. He asked them what they were talking about which made them so sad. But in verse 21 they tell the tale of sight, the tale of doubt and trouble, even after they heard the testimony of the woman and Peter.

They still did not know what to think. Not until Jesus told them the truth of His love, the very reason for His suffering and death for them, did their hearts begin to be consumed with the heat and energy of His love? It can be the same today with those who Jesus loves. Jesus Christ desires intimacy with those He loves and did so much for. Our hearts get cold when intimacy with Christ is not our focus. All that is left is cold, lifeless theology and doctrine.

When we separate Christ, through a lack of intimacy with Him, we become theologians and scholars of our own heart, separated from Him in our experience. We become our own interpreters. When there is no intimacy there can be no exchange, without an exchange there can be no fellowship. This is the very reason God must make us dependent on Him. He wants all of us to see that dependence creates intimacy.

The more dependent I am on Him, the more intimacy is created. This is His love for us that creates in us the powerful energy, the fuel that we so deeply need to keep going forward until we meet Him face to face in that uninhibited loving embrace and exchange of a love that we will never come to the end of experiencing.