The Importance Of Intimacy
"But indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish that I might gain Christ..." (Philippians 3:8)
I believe that families that have a strong unity is based on the intimate times they spend together. I don't want to minimize the group events and activities that families involve themselves in; but when time is spent on a one to one basis, I believe it builds strong relationships within the family body as a whole. When parents and the children make the time to individually spend time with each other, it builds the necessary bonds that are so needed in families today.
In our text, the apostle Paul stresses the importance of his intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. He said that he "counted all things loss..in order to gain "the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus..." And to what extent did he go to accomplish this? He "suffered the loss of all things."
How well do we know our Lord Jesus Christ? To what extent will we go to really have a strong intimate relationship with Him? Yes, as it is in a family, the times that we come together to worship, pray, study the Bible, and to fellowship together, are important. But I believe that just as, or more important, is our individual, personal time with our Lord Jesus Christ. What some have emphasized in our Christian community, as a "quiet time with the Lord." A time of prayer, a time of reading the Word of God, a time when we are quiet, and we let the Lord Jesus speak to us.
There are three more aspects of this knowledge of Jesus that we as Christians need to develop.
First: To obtain a righteousness that is not our own, but that which is found in Christi Jesus.
This intimate personal time with the Lord, will help us to understand how we can be right with our Heavenly Father, by implementing the mind and character of our Lord Jesus. We will not develop this righteousness if we don't come to deeply know the Lord.
Secondly: To experience "the power of Jesus resurrection."
Just as Jesus arose from the dead, we can take off our grave clothes of a dead sinful nature, and rise to walk with Jesus in newness of life.(Romans 6:4) In our walk with the Lord, He will prepare us for the time when we will arrive at our eternal destination.
Third: To experience "the fellowship of His sufferings."
"Must Jesus bear the cross alone, and all the world go free? No there's a cross for everyone, and there's a cross for me." We are to deny ourselves, take up our cross, and follow Him." (Matthew 16:24) Jesus was willing to suffer and die for us, will we be willing to suffer and die for Him as well?
A deep personal intimate relationship with someone is priceless.
When time is spent getting to know someone, sharing our good times, our bad times, our victories, our trials, etc. what a difference it will make in our relationships today, and forever. I know I need to do better at this, and I believe that all of us need to as well. GP
Photo: Bingodesigns/42 images/Content License/Free to use under the Content License/No attribution required/www.pixabay.com