“But whenever anyone turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.”
2 Corinthians 3:16-17 (NIV)
We all tend to move closer or drift farther from God, depending on what we are experiencing in our lives, but whether in good or bad times, God still desires our intimacy with Him.
A close relationship with Jesus was not supposed to be based upon our circumstances. It’s more like a marriage vow, for better or for worse. Intimacy with the Lord is something we choose by cooperating with His grace. God opens our hearts, but we always have the choice of how open we want our heart to be.
Faith in God begins with head knowledge, but through time and experiences, it makes its way to that strong, solid place within our hearts. I may know in my mind that God can do what I ask of Him, but sometimes it’s difficult to transfer that to my heart. Someone once said that the longest journey is from our head to our heart.
Once faith reaches our heart, there is a personal element that comes alive, which the Old Testament prophets often wrote about. Ezekiel told us that God wants to remove our heart of stone and replace it with a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 36:26)
Some days are more difficult than others, and I find myself saying, “Lord, take away my stoney heart.”
Jeremiah also spoke about circumcising the heart, instead of the flesh. (Jeremiah 4:4)
Let’s face it-God is always after our heart, and He’s not going to stop until He can renew our hearts into the image of His son’s. He is always circumcising or cutting away the nonproductive attitudes within us, and He will be purifying us, for as long as we live. It’s a good reason not to cast judgement on others, since God isn’t finished with any of us yet.
The first commandment is the driving force for everything, since Jesus told us, “to love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.”(Matthew 12:30)
God loves us more than we could ever comprehend. He loves us even when we don’t return that love to Him. Even when we drift away from Him, His mercy is showered upon us, in new ways every morning, not because we deserve it, but because His love surpasses what we deserve.
It makes one wonder why then, is it so easy for people to drift away from the One who loves them the most.
I know from my own experience, it could be that we just get so busy doing “things”. Even when we are doing all the right things, working, helping, giving, serving, or attending church, we can still drift away from intimacy with Jesus. Despite that, He pursues each of us through any means possible, until we return to Him and remove our veil.
No lover wants to feel unnoticed or ignored by the one they love, and neither does God. He is on a quest to capture our whole heart, our whole soul, our whole mind and all of our strength. God is in a passionate pursuit to see us, beyond our veil. Once we realize how much He loves us, it leads us into total surrender.
A favorite simple prayer of mine is “Lord, fill me with more of you,” because more of Him means less of me, and that’s the best formula for removing any veils.
Someone once said that the word intimacy means “into me, see”. It’s a clever play on the word, which also defines the word. It means letting Him see into our hidden pain, doubt, anger and fear. Intimacy with God is allowing Him to “see into us”, beyond our veil.
Scripture shows us that we may unknowingly allow a veil to come between us, but the One who loves us the most, will go to any lengths, until we remove that veil and let Him in, which is why He sent Jesus, as the bridegroom of the church.
The reference to a veil reminds us of a traditional wedding ceremony, where the veil remains over the bride until the couple is pronounced husband and wife. Her veil is removed only when they officially become one. Jesus calls His church, His bride. It’s a church spread across the entire world, made up of believers from many denominations, and yet we are all His bride. We were meant to remove our veils and become one with our bridegroom, Jesus.
We may wonder why God is allowing some difficult things to happen in our lives, but His aim is never to cause us pain or to shame us, but to keep us from drifting away, and to revive and purify our love for Him. He searches our innermost being, not to judge or punish us, but to draw us closer and preserve a sacred intimacy with His bride.
Lord, thank you for loving us so passionately. As you “see into us,”
fill us with more of you and less of ourselves. Remove our veils and draw us closer to you. Amen
