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Chapter Two: Getting Closer to God

Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. (Deuteronomy 6:5)

A life of intimacy with God is characterized by joy. (Oswald Chambers)

When God created the first person, what distinguished him from the rest of creation was that he was created in the image of God. In other words, he had the capacity to connect with God and to reflect God’s presence in the world. Thus we have the ability to know, to love and to honour the Lord of heaven and earth.

This reality is revealed in the story of Adam and Eve. When God created them to live in the Garden of Eden, they had a wonderful relationship with God, with each other and with the created order around them. God told them that everything was there for their use and enjoyment, but the tree in the centre of the garden they were not to touch. Daily they enjoyed communion with God, until that fateful day when they took and ate of the forbidden fruit.

That evening the couple heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden, and they hid from the presence of God. God called out, “Where are you?” It was not a question about their physical location but about their relationship with God. They were designed for intimacy with God, but now they were hiding from God. Hiding from God has been the stance of humanity from that time until the present. God desires to be in relationship with us, but we are living apart from God, and when that happens we discover how lonely and meaningless life can be.

The writer of Ecclesiastes, sometimes referred to as the philosopher, expressed his disillusionment about life. He wrote,

I denied myself nothing my eyes desired; I refused my heart no pleasure. My heart took delight in all my work, and this was the reward for all my labor. Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun. (Ecclesiastes 2:10–11)

It is obvious that the writer is frustrated. He did not find satisfaction through intellectual pursuits, pleasures or projects he undertook and completed. No matter what we do, there remains a deep longing within each person to know God intimately, and without this there will be a deep dissatisfaction and disconnect.

In Luke 15, Jesus told a story that is somewhat reflective of our story. There was a man who had two sons, and the younger of the two asked his father to give him the portion of the family estate that belonged to him. In that culture, when there were two heirs the eldest received two-thirds and the youngest received the remaining one-third. However, the division of the estate only occurred after the death of the father. So what the young man was actually saying was he wished his dad was dead. The estate meant more to him than the relationship he had with his father.

The father, without hesitation, granted the son’s request and the freedom to do as he desired. The younger son went off to a distant land and spent everything he had on a lifestyle he thought would bring him enjoyment. One day he discovered he had nothing. He had no friends, no money, and no dignity. In fact, he was hungry, lonely, trying to survive by working on a pig farm. It was at this point that he came to his senses and thought about returning home. His plan was simple: he would admit he was wrong in what he had done and would ask his father to receive him as a hired hand.

As he makes his way home his father sees him coming, jumps up and runs toward his son, not the typical action of a Middle Eastern father. When they meet he embraces his son and kisses him, for his heart is filled with joy. The young man tries to tell his dad his plan but is interrupted as the father tells the servants to bring shoes and a robe and to prepare a feast. His son has come home.

Meanwhile, the elder brother working in the fields hears the commotion, is curious and inquires as to what is going on. When he learns his young brother has returned home, he refuses to join the celebration and actually chastises his father for welcoming this son home. The elder son is bitter; he works hard for his father, never causes a moment of concern, yet this brother of his who has squandered his resources (and he assumes it was squandered on prostitutes) is given a celebration. He, on the other hand, the good and loyal son, never experiences anything like this, so he is not about to celebrate and enter the joy of his father for a son who had been perceived as dead but is now home safe and sound.

When Jesus told this story there were two audiences listening to him. The author Tim Keller comments,

First there were the “tax collectors and sinners.” These men and women correspond to the younger brother. They observed neither the moral laws of the Bible nor the rules for ceremonial purity followed by the religious Jews. They engaged in “wild living.” Like the younger brother, they “left home” by leaving the traditional morality of their families and of respectable society. The second group of listeners was the “Pharisees and the teachers of the law,” who were represented by the elder brother. They held to the traditional morality of their upbringing. They studied and obeyed the Scripture. They worshipped faithfully and prayed constantly.”⁷

Obviously the younger brother used his father to get what he wanted, and the elder brother obeyed his father to get what he wanted. Some, who are in the category of the elder brother, believe their performance gives them status with the father. They can say and do all the right things, but their heart is “in the far country.” In reality, both brothers are lost and alone.

The author Joseph Stowell defines aloneness as

What we feel when we are functionally disconnected at the core of our being from all that truly satisfies, sustains, and secures. It is the absence of an experiential sense of God’s presence, power, and pleasure to supply us with the resources that support all of life. It is the ultimate consequence of trusting in companions and commodities that are, at the end of the day, insufficient.⁸

The opposite of aloneness, according to Stowell, is intimacy, and there is nothing else in the entire world that can meet this deep longing of the heart. However, he believes that true intimacy is only found “in a growing relationship to the One who is perfectly suited to satisfy us and sustain us…intimacy is what we experience as we grow more deeply conscious of, connected to, and confident in him and him alone as our unfailing resource in life.”⁹ Sadly, only the younger son would discover that relationship.

This account is often referred to as “The Story of the Prodigal Son.” The term “prodigal” means “extravagant,” and in one sense the younger son was prodigal in that he lived an extravagant lifestyle, hoping that it would give him meaning or purpose or at least some moments of happiness. I am convinced that the story should be called “The Prodigal Father,” because the father was absolutely extravagant in his love for both of his sons. This is what we need in all relationships, including our relationship with God—extravagant love.

The Pharisees asked Jesus what was the greatest commandment. He replied, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength” (Mark 12:30). This implies loving God with the totality of our being. It is a lived experience and not an intellectual exercise. Paul declared, “I want to know Christ” (Philippians 3:10). This implies he wanted to experience Christ in every aspect of life.

The second commandment Jesus spoke about was “Love your neighbor as yourself” (Mark 12:31). Our love for God will always be expressed in our relationships with others.

As we consider God’s love for us, it ought to leave us breathless. His love is spontaneous and unending, and he chose to love us simply because he chose to love us. There are some who accept this as a theological truth but have not yet experienced it nor internalized it. Richard of Chichester in the 13th century wrote a prayer, popularized in the song “Day by Day,” that expresses three factors to help us grow closer to God:

Thanks be to you, O Lord Jesus Christ,

for all the benefits which you have given us;

for all the pains and insults which you have borne for us.

O most merciful Redeemer, Friend, and Brother,

may we know you more clearly,

love you more dearly,

and follow you more nearly;

for your own sake.

The first aspect of the prayer is to know God more clearly. This is much more than propositional truth. The apostle Paul’s prayer for the Christians in Ephesus was “that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe” (Ephesians 1:18–19).

The question remains, what do we need to do to know God more clearly? The author Ken Boa believes,

The two essential ingredients are time and obedience. It takes time to cultivate a relationship, and unless we set aside consistent time for solitude, silence, prayer, and Scripture reading, we will never become intimate with our Lord. Obedience is the proper response to this communication, since it is our personal expression of trust in the promises of the Person we are coming to know.¹⁰

Jesus said very clearly, “If you love me, you will obey my commandments” (John 14:15, GWT).

There will be those who wonder who has the time for this type of a relationship when our lives are consumed with busyness. In fact, many find their identity and measure their worth by what they do and how much they accomplish. Biblical scholar Bruce Demarest comments,

Nourishing the inner man comes through relationship (being). The inner man is drained as the result of compulsion (legalism) and hyperactivity (doing). The life empowered to obey God only flows from a heart relationship with him, in the manner of Christ. With this in mind, we can understand Jesus’ words: “yes I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). Only as we are graced with God’s peaceful presence are we really equipped to serve him.¹¹

The second aspect of the prayer is to love God more dearly. The more we understand what God has done for us, the more our hearts will overflow with love toward him. John wrote, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). With the father in the story of the two sons, the love given was unmerited and undeserved. So it is with God. As we know him more we love him more.

The final aspect of the prayer is that we would follow him more nearly. Following God is based upon trusting him completely. Even if he asks us to follow him through a challenging and difficult situation, we know that he only has our greater good in mind. Boa states, “Obedience to Christ is the way we test and express our abiding relationship with him.”¹²

As we continue this journey it is essential that we develop a growing relationship with the God of heaven and earth, the One who made us for a relationship with himself and who has revealed himself in the person of Jesus Christ. Whether you perceive yourself as the younger brother or the older brother, the message is the same: God desires an intimate relationship with you.

The theologian James Packer declares,

What matters most supremely, therefore, is not, in the last analysis, the fact that I know God, but the larger fact that underlies it—the fact that he knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hands; I am never out of his mind. All knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I know him because he first knew me and continues to know me. He knows me as friend. There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love for me is utterly realistic based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery can now disillusion him about me.¹³