God Wants An Intimate Relationship With You

# 48 – Today's Du-votional comes from 1Sa 3:6 Then the LORD called yet again, "Samuel!" So Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, "Here I am, for you called me." He answered, "I did not call, my son; lie down again." 7 (Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, nor was the word of the LORD yet revealed to him.) The Lord speaks Samuel's name again, and again he assumes it is Eli calling. It's a natural assumption since Samuel had not yet encountered God in a personal manner. This God whom Samuel knew of by way of symbols and prescribed worship as he learned the ropes of the priesthood was distant to him. It had never occurred to him that this God desired to have an intimate, personal, relationship with him. Does that sound a little familiar? We bring our children to church for years. They know all about God, but they don't understand the personal relationship part of our faith. Without that vital experience, our children are easy prey for the devil, the world, and their flesh. We wring our hands about the departure of our young people from the church and rightly so, but why are they leaving? I would propose to you that this lack of an understanding of this personal, intimate relationship with God is a major reason. Once you have tasted and grasped the personal forgiveness that comes to you through faith in Jesus, you will find yourself running TO Him instead of away from Him. This relationship by the way, is always initiated by God. He calls, but like Samuel, we must respond. So how do we get this point across to our young people? Number one, we must teach them about God's desire to be intimate with them. We must teach them about the Holy Spirit's role in all this. The Holy Spirit dwells in all who have been baptized and He longs to be involved in every part of our lives. Far too often, He is the forgotten person of the Trinity, yet it is He who fosters our intimacy with God. Our young people need to catch us often being intimate with God. They need to see that our intimacy is real, and finally, since it is God who calls us into intimacy, we need to pray that He will keep calling our children until they hear.