Up Close & Personal - Rick Fields (Guest Writer)

It's true that God is interested building true intimacy and relationship with his precious children. God wants to be the one with whom we share our dreams, ambitions, fears, vulnerability, desires and longing. I was reading a note that my friend Rick wrote and I was so inspired by it that I wanted to share it with you all.
I pray that it gives you new perspective and encourages you in your relationship with God!
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God is into dealing with us.

He is such an up close and personal God. Not only is He spiritually near to us because He lives in those who have placed faith in Christ, but He is an up close and personal God in the sense that He doesn't want a superficial, "Hi and bye" kind of relationship with us, He wants it to be real, raw, and...I can't think of a 3rd R. Oh well, but That's been a constant theme in my life recently that keeps coming up one way or another, so I thought i'd write on it.

God is an up close and personal God. Though often times, His tugs at our heart, His taps on our shoulder, and His attempts to establish closeness are shrugged off and discounted like a billboard you pass on the way to work. God faithfully deals with us. He is in that "soft whisper" if you look for it.

” And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind tore the mountains and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. 12 And after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire the sound of a low whisper." (1 Kings 19:11-12)

[27] that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, [28] for “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’(Acts 17:27-28 ESV)

And when I say that God deals with us, I don’t mean that God puts up with us, like some annoying co-worker who you can’t stand dealing with. You have to put up with someone when you dislike them. On the contrary, God deals with us because He loves us. Dealing with us means that God is willing and wanting to get up close to us, to get in our business, in our thoughts, He wants to deal on a real, every day level with us, be in the trenches with us, on the court with us, at the table eating with us per se. Completely different concept.

20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me. (Rev. 3:20)

The way God deals with us is like having your own personal fitness trainer. Often times when you sign up for a gym membership, you get a few free sessions with a personal fitness trainer, generally some ex-football player who looks like he’s on steroids. This guys job is to spend time with you every day, pushing you to grow to be like him! Or at least, the best you you can be (without performance enhancing drugs lol). And despite all the tests and exercises and stretches he puts you through, his job is really not to make your life miserable, though some days your body may feel otherwise! But the personal trainers job, the heart of it, is to get the best in us and from us and out of us, for the sake of our health.

God too is a personal trainer. He’s that involved. He’s not some hands off, distant, far away spectator in the clouds above who can’t be reached. God is hands on, up close, in our minds, in our faces, in our hearts, gently, yet boldly pressing us to be the best us; to make the best career, the best relationships, the best use of our time and money, the best sacrifices for others, the best choices and decisions for ourselves and our loved ones and for our communities. He too, is pushing us to be "Like Him." And it's an intensely personal process.

29 For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. (Rom. 8:29)

That’s how God deals with us; on a one-on-one level, with love being His only motive. He is personal, not general. General is something done cookie-cutter style for everybody. Personal is something hand-crafted with you in mind. That's how God deals with us; hand-crafted.

And God is committed to us. Every day, from the time we open our eyes and plant our feet on the ground in the morning, God is jockeying for us to “choose life.” And every evening, when the night has fallen, and you’re slipping back into bed to recharge after a hard day’s work, God is speaking “You are my son, you are my daughter, and I love you.”

Do you hear that? Do you know that? Do you ever stop long enough to listen for it? Are you ever still enough in the midst of all of your appointments and meetings and to-do lists, long enough to hear the Spirit saying these things? Are you getting more than just instructions from God’s book on how to live a purpose driven life, are you also hearing words of inspiration and motivation and comfort from a living God & heavenly Father who’s the greatest champion of your life?

15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, 'Abba! Father!” 16 And the Spirit himself bears witness to our spirit that we are children of God, (Rom. 8:15-16)

I pray that we would not only go to church and read our bibles and have a plan for our finances and marriages and families that follow biblical principles. I pray that we would not only participate in church picnics and Sunday schools and choir rehearsals and dance ministries. I pray that we would learn to recognize and respond to the Living God who is dealing with us faithfully and lovingly every day. I pray that we would grow to talk with God who is living and alive and real and involved intimately with us, as naturally as we talk to ourselves when we’re in the car alone or at the house by ourselves. I pray that talking to God would become as natural as breathing. And I pray that as we begin to talk to God, we would begin to hear from God in a new and energizing way. That we would let Him develop a new level of trust. That we would let Him develop a more deeply rooted faith. That we would hear what He is saying and remember it more than the words of our favorite song. And that in hearing, we would grow in obeying, knowing that we follow a God who died on the cross for us, yet who lives within each one of us.

“Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you, declares the LORD....” (Jeremiah 29:12-14 ESV)