Prayer as Intimacy - Part 1

Intimacy is close familiarity, as in a great friendship or a special relationship such as marriage. One of the most rewarding parts of an intimate relationship is being known and loved for who you are by another person. 

When you are not known for who you really are, relationships can be temporary and unsteady. When you are loved for things that are not actually true, there is always the possibility that the other person will find out you are not as good, strong, or smart as they think you are. It is exhausting being someone you are not.

Prayer as intimacy is about letting down your guard and really being yourself, warts and all, with the God who 'knitted you together in [your] mother's womb'. When you recognize that God already knows everything about you, even the things you might like to hide or change, then you can pray to God about the feelings, questions, and desires that are behind each situation you face. 

As we go to God in prayer this week, let's drop all pretense of having the perfect words to say or of asking for all the right things. Let's talk to the God who is intimately aware of all our flaws and failures with the confidence that He still earnestly desires a relationship with us.

Take the example of this prayer of King David to heart in your conversations with God:

O Lord , you have searched me and known me!  You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from afar.  You search out my path and my lying down and are acquainted with all my ways.  Even before a word is on my tongue, behold, O Lord , you know it altogether.  You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me.   Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high; I cannot attain it.   Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence?   If I ascend to heaven, you are there!  If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!  If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,  even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.  If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,”   even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with you.  For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.   My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.  How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them!   If I would count them, they are more than the sand. I awake, and I am still with you. Psalm 139:1‭-‬18 ESV

Prayer

Heavenly Father, You knew me in my mother's womb. You know the number of hairs on my head. You know my flaws and You know my short comings and yet You still love me just the way I am. I humble myself before You, O Lord and ask that You help me continue to seek You first and become more intimate with You. Help me love me the way you love me so that I may love others the way You love others. Guide me through this week as I seek a deeper relationship with You. I ask all this in Your Son's Mighty Name. AMEN.