An Intimate God should never become a familiar God.

1 Timothy 6:13-16 I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ Jesus, who testified the good confession before Pontius Pilate, that you keep the commandment without stain or reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which He will bring about at the proper time—He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords,  who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.

Application: How essential it is to be reminded Who our God is! I just returned from India, and it was clear there, the people viewed whatever gods they worshiped as greater than themselves, worthy of their adoration and fearful of their displeasure. You Lord have made Yourself so intimate with us, that our flesh many times can take for granted the relationship You offer. We can even become complacent in our thoughts and our approach to You. We can treat You as some “Big Buddy” of ours, one of our “home boys” the “big Guy upstairs.” “My man” that has “got my back”. All false gods demand respect, fear and emphasize their separation from humans.  The intimacy You offer oh Lord can be a two edged sword if we are not careful. You do want us to call You friend and even “Papa”, like crawling up on Your lap when we are hurt and You comforting us, or protecting us like a “mother hen” does her baby chicks. You have humbled Yourself lower than an Angel, took on flesh and invited all, from the highest to the lowest, from the most righteous to the most decadent to freely come and join Your family! Only a true God could or would do that. Yet, in this tremendous act of intimacy, if we do not keep before us the reality of Who You are, we can become too familiar with You, and we might approach You as an equal and disrespect You in front of others. That is why Scriptures such as this help us to remember who You are! 

You alone are Sovereign, the King of all kings, both real and imagined. The Lord over everyone that would think themselves a lord. The one and only true God! Thanks be to the Holy Spirit, Who helps us to keep the balance. Yes, we can approach You boldly and with ease because of the blood of Your Son. Yet, we should never forget that You are the Almighty God, worthy of all honor and praise. We should never lose sight of our respect of Who You are. For myself, I see that if I'm not careful, because You are so intimate that I might treat lightly the sins I commit. The enemy desires to build guilt in my life due to my failures, however, the Holy Spirit desires to convict me of those sins and draw me immediately back to You in confession and repentance, which will enable me to experience Your cleansing in our relationship, that brings back the intimacy in fellowship that my sin disrupted. Each time that we encounter Scriptures that express the greatness of Who You are we would do well to take time for a heart check and make sure that the balance of intimacy and reverence are existing together.

Meditation Questions: How close do you feel to the Lord? How serious do you take your sin? When you sin, are you more upset that you failed or that you hurt your Heavenly Father’s heart? Is your sin more about you, or more about how it disrespects your God? Right after you sin, do you still feel ok to approach God? If not, why? Is yes, why? If you were to describe your relationship to God would it lean more on the formal side or the familiar side? Do you think you have balance? Based on your answer what should you do to make it what God wants it to be?