What is the sign of a friend? Is it that he tells you his secret sorrows? No, it is that he tells you his secret joys. Many people will confide their secret sorrows to you, but the final mark of intimacy is when they share their secret joys with you. Have we ever let God tell us any of His joys? Or are we continually telling God our secrets, leaving Him no time to talk to us? At the beginning of our Christian life we are full of requests to God. But then we find that God wants to get us into an intimate relationship with Himself— to get us in touch with His purposes. Are we so intimately united to Jesus Christ’s idea of prayer— “Your will be done” (Matthew 6:10)— that we catch the secrets of God?

What makes God so dear to us is not so much His big blessings to us, but the tiny things, because they show His amazing intimacy with us— He knows every detail of each of our individual lives.“Him shall He teach in the way He chooses” (Psalm 25:12). At first, we want the awareness of being guided by God. But then as we grow spiritually, we live so fully aware of God that we do not even need to ask what His will is, because the thought of choosing another way will never occur to us.

If we are saved and sanctified, God guides us by our everyday choices. And if we are about to choose what He does not want, He will give us a sense of doubt or restraint, which we must heed. Whenever there is doubt, stop at once. Never try to reason it out, saying, “I wonder why I shouldn’t do this?” God instructs us in what we choose; that is, He actually guides our common sense. And when we yield to His teachings and guidance, we no longer hinder His Spirit by continually asking, “Now, Lord, what is Your will?”

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June 3 2015

Journal Entry for Today-JDV

Good morning God and thank you for this new devotional. Well, it seems new even though we have been using this book My Utmost for His Highest, for over five years. You continue to make the devotionals fresh and alive through the direction of the Holy Spirit.  You remind us here of the intimate relationship You seek with us, and that notion overwhelms me. I am reminded of the lyric, “who am I that the Lord of all the world would care to know my name.” Thank You for Your love and the intimate way You have of reaching out to us.

And God says…”Since the beginning, man has tried to worship Me in the ways He believes will please Me. But I do not seek your worship first.  I seek our intimate relationship. Your appropriate worship will follow, as you allow the Holy Spirit that is the result of your surrender, to guide your thoughts and actions. You then have the love, power, grace, insight and motivation to worship in ways that will support and sustain our intimate and loving relationship. Seek first the Kingdom of God, which is Jesus, and I will provide everything else you require in this life; including the love, power, grace, insight and motivation  for you to surrender, be connected, curious, expectant and obedient. And when you cannot be all these things, my grace and love fills the gaps.”