Developing Intimacy

Jeremiah 3

Paul J. Bucknell

>Marriage, then, is the earthly picture of the heavenly, but it is more than that. Our spiritual relationship with God is shaped by the way we share ourselves on earth. We might say that the depth of a relationship depends on a person's honesty and sincerity. Of course, there are two partners. And so it is dependent on a person's ability and willingness to reveal their inner self to another. Let's focus on these two key ingredients to intimate sharing.

Something is really wrong with the church. We see it in the way God's people view their sexual lives. The reports that reveal the low moral standard show that we have left the Lord. We will, of course, deny that we have left Him at all. If anything, we will speak up vocally about our continued faithfulness to God. This is what they did here in Jeremiah 3.

The Lord is calling us to be pure in heart. Lately, I have seen a special way of looking at this whole issue that will bring clarity. The insight isn't new, but it deserves revisiting in our modern context.

Willingness

The ability to share is one matter. Others are not willing. This is the trust factor we discussed elsewhere. As marriages begin to end in fights and despair, the young no longer understand or hope for intimacy. They do not believe it exists. This is where I believe that, though good marriages help us with our spiritual closeness to God, the other is also true. Those with stained backgrounds can, by drawing close to God, overcome their person-to-person problems. If this were not so, then our society would degenerate into barbarism.

>I suppose we would all say that we would like to have close sharing with our spouses, but in the end, we just don't have the faith it takes to be willing. More often than not, a person has been hurt so much that they are not really open to sharing private things. For example, they have been exposed to such quarreling that they made a secret pledge never to get married, or if they do, to not get so close that it really matters. Others might have been gossiped about after sharing private matters, or, even worse, ridiculed for them. All of this leads down the same road of unwillingness to share.