Cultivating Intimacy with the Savior
Jeff Chesemore
“You can’t introduce others to someone you don’t know.”
This seemingly obvious declaration begs the question for every Christ follower: Do we know Jesus well enough to talk about him with others? Not just possessing an intellectual understanding of his story, but having a deep, personal intimacy with the one we call the Savior?
After all, there’s a vast difference between knowing about Jesus and knowing Jesus. When we truly know someone, we learn their likes and dislikes, their joys and sorrows, their thoughts and feelings. But it takes a depth of relationship that requires care and attention.
And how do we go about growing deeper with the Lord? By spending time with him, naturally!
So just as best friends intentionally spend time together, we do the same with ours. But, of course, Jesus is far more than a “best friend.” He is, as the apostle Paul so eloquently exclaimed,
“… the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation. For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:15-20, NIV)
Given this résumé, why wouldn’t we long to be with Jesus and know him better? Of course we’ll never comprehend him completely, but how exciting to discover more and more of him every day! Not just for our own personal growth, which is critical, but so we can also speak about him passionately and intelligently with the Gen Zers we care so much about.
Can our young friends see we know Jesus by how we live? Will they be like the people in Acts 4:13 who, “When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus” (italics mine).
Have we been with Jesus to the extent that people can’t help but notice?
Do we know him, not just know about him?
Do you?