INTIMACY,
POWER OF
ONE time a dog was chasing my oldest granddaughter. She was only about four or five years old. She was just terrified. Now, I don’t think that dog was going to do anything to her but she didn’t know that. She was crying and screaming as she made her way to me as fast as her little legs would carry her. She was yelling my name, “Poppy! Poppy! Poppy!” That little girl was in a complete state of terror. I ran to meet her and gathered her up in my arms. She was huffing, heaving, and puffing, totally out of breath.
The dog ran up to me, stopped just short, and started barking away. The advance had ended. My granddaughter looked up at me and noticed that the dog was no longer a threat. She looked down at the dog, and then she looked up at me. She looked back down at the dog, and with a new verve and vigor, she said, “Na-na-nana-na!”
Intimacy breeds confidence. When you are close to someone whom you love who has a lot more power than you do, you can piggyback.499
[Father God; Fear]
Ps. 27:1–3
IF YOU only have a thimble worth of capacity, and you’re standing on the edge of the Pacific Ocean, you have access to a lot of water, but you won’t get much of it because your capacity is so small.
If you have the capacity of a bucket, you’ll get more than a thimble, but once the bucket is full, the ocean can do you no more good.
If you have a barrel, then you’ll get more than a bucket, but once the barrel is full, you still will only have taken advantage of a miniscule part of the ocean.
The idea is to offer God the biggest container possible. Offer Him all of you so that He can maximize what He wants to do in your life. He can do more than we think possible but according to the power that works in us.500
[Surrender, Benefits of]
Eph. 3:20
THERE was a little boy one day and a bully was harassing him. Every day he went to school, and the bully would beat him up. Some of his friends were telling him what to do. They gave him a lot of different advice. They told him to try another route home, but the bully found out about that route and still beat him up. Another person suggested that the little boy carry a stick. He carried the stick. The bully caught up with him, took the stick away, and then beat him with it. Everything the boy tried to get rid of the bully did not work.
One day he was walking to school—terrified. Out jumped the bully with his fists clenched and getting ready to pounce on the boy. The youngster beckoned to the bully and said, “Come on. I’m ready.”
The bully couldn’t believe this young man all of a sudden got some guts. “Come on. Come on you bully. I’ll take you right now.”
Aggravated, the bully started toward the boy intending to pummel him. All of a sudden, out stepped the boy’s father from behind the bush. He was 6’10“ and 275 lbs.
The bully looked up in shock and uttered, “Oh no.”
See, the closer you are to the Father, the closer you are to your Daddy, the more the bully called the Devil will have to leave you alone. If your Daddy’s staying home because you don’t want to be close to Him, don’t be surprised if the Devil wears you out day in and day out.501
[Father God; Satan; Victory]
Ex. 15:2; Ps. 28:7; 1 Peter 5:8
IF A person goes on a long trip and they travel the same route there and back, most time, it seems like the trip home is shorter than the trip to the destination. In actuality, it doesn’t take less time, but it just seems that way. Why is that? There is something about traveling home.
No matter how far a person has traveled away from God, if they are willing to make the return trip, God will make the time coming back a lot shorter than the time moving away from Him. The trip home always seems shorter.502
[Repentance; Restoration; Second Chances]
Ezek. 18:31; Joel 2:12; Acts 3:19
ON ONE family vacation, we traveled to Niagara Falls. Niagara Falls has two sides, a Canadian side and an American side. On this particular vacation, we went to the Canadian side. We got in a hotel, and it was from the hotel that I first saw the falls. I looked out, and wondered at its magnificence. I was impressed.
The next morning we got up, had breakfast, then sat down at a park near the falls. You could see the falls this time too but the view was different here than from the room. Not only could we see the falls up close and see the water going over the precipice, we could also hear the thunderous roar of the water hitting the basin. The water would fly up in the air and the breeze would come in from across the street. We actually felt the water misting on our faces.
Now, there is a third way a person can see the falls. It’s called the Maid of the Mist. The Maid of the Mist is a boat that rides around in the basin of the falls. It will take you up to the falls. If a person decides to take a ride on the Maid of the Mist, the crew will give that passenger a raincoat and an umbrella. The Maid of the Mist will bring them close to the falls. They will get drenched.
How much of Jesus we experience is determined by how close we choose to get to Him. His impact in our lives is determined by the level of intimacy that we choose.503
[Intimacy, with God; Jesus, Relationship with]
Ps. 145:18; 2 Cor. 3:17–18; Heb. 10:22