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I had the privilege to meet some fascinating women recently. Their love for God and His Word is beyond words and being in their presence is truly a blessing to me.....in more ways than one. One of them gave a talk about joy and I learned something interesting.

First of all she mentioned a word.....intimacy. This word to me is connected with married people in committed relationships, but when I looked it up, it means "close familiarity or friendship; a cozy atmosphere; or an intimate act"
We are intimate with our spouses in that they know us better than anyone. Our spouse is the one person we should be able to tell anything to and be as close to the other person as we can be. We need intimacy with our God. We can only have this when we get into His Word to learn more about Him. The more we know, the more we love Him. Just think of when you first met your spouse....if you are married. If you are like me, in the beginning you wanted to know all you could about them. You spent your days waiting to spend time with him. You thought about him constantly. The more you learn about your spouse, the more you love him/her. The same is true with God. We need to know Him to love Him and then we have intimacy with Him. We are to be as close to Him as we can be.....so close that when people interact with you, they see God first, then you. The same can happen when you get married. After I was married, I became known as "Dustin's wife" to those who knew him.....I am still recognized as such with some people. We had that intimate bond and I am recognized with him. Being intimate with God is not an overnight task. We gain understanding about Him through intimacy with him. This takes persistence. This takes effort even when we are tired.....same as a marriage.

The next word she mentioned is understanding. We gain understanding from God's Word about who He is. When we understand things, we can feel better about what we are trying to learn. Years ago I worked in a school cafeteria. I cooked for my family every night, but that was small in comparison to cooking for a whole school. I am not so good at math, but....when I got that cooking job, it was constant math. I had to count and figure and measure for all the kids. One wrong count or answer to a math equation left dozens of kids without lunch. I had to be on my game. Then throw in the time crunch factor and it turns into a more stressful day than you want. We had to have the food ready at a certain time.....and some menus were difficult to have done on time. Too much food wasn't good either as the budget was tight. My point in all this is that I had to gain understanding. I had to know what I was doing and act accordingly. I got all this understanding from my boss and co-workers who had more experience than me, and we all worked as a team. Those kitchen days were some of the best days of my life......even though math was involved. :) We gain understanding in this life when we are willing to learn. We must be willing to learn from God and what He puts in front of us. Having a humble attitude can make all the difference.

The last word she mentioned is joy. I've talked of joy before in other blogs, but when she talked of it, I had to listen and write this down.

"Intimacy comes from Understanding;
Understanding comes from God's Word;
God's Word leads to joy"

Psalm 119:103 tells us that..."How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth"
Did you catch that? God's word is sweeter than honey. I like honey on bread and when my kids were small they would ask for it too....with butter. This verse is telling us that God's Word is better and sweeter than honey.
Psalm 19:8....."The precepts (Word of God)  of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart"
Here the psalmist is telling us that total joy is found in God's right words. Joy isn't found in anything on this earth. It's only found in the eternal being of God and that is the only thing that will stand the test of time.....forever.