Does the Lord ever bring to your attention a word or an idea, and you keep being reminded of it?  Sometimes He does that to me. Recently in my devotional time, 1 Samuel 2:2 caught my attention.

“No one is holy like the Lord, for there is none besides You, nor is there any rock like our God.”

What catches your attention in that verse?  For me, it was “nor is there any rock like our God”! Those words are in a worship song that we sing at church but I did not realize that the words were directly from God’s Word! I know that I had read the prayer of Hannah before but did not remember that she used those words.  God kept reminding me of that concept. The children in our Sunday school worship time are also singing the song “Jesus is the Rock”.  God IS our Rock!  David said “the Lord is my rock” (2 Samuel 22:2) and “who is a rock, except our God” (2 Samuel 22:32). There is no Rock except God. 

Can you remember times in your life when it was only the solid rock, Jesus, who kept your feet firm?  Perhaps when your child died; your marriage failed; you suffered from depression; you or a loved one faced imprisonment; your child was born with a disability; even the everyday busyness of life & life with children!

Even when all around us seems to be falling apart, God is the foundation, the rock, that keeps us. At times in my life when I have had struggles, it has only been having Jesus as my solid foundation that has kept me from despair.  In our times today, it may be difficult to wonder what is happening.  But HE IS THE ROCK!   2 Samuel 22:47 “The Lord lives! Blessed be my Rock! Let God be exalted. The Rock of my salvation!”  

Can you think of a time in your life recently when you had struggles?  Did you find Jesus, the Rock, to be helpful to you at that time?  Have you ever depended upon something else or someone else to be your rock?  Did that fail you?

Our God is the creator of diamonds. He puts pressure on carbon for thousands of years, producing this beautiful and valuable stone. Although, we know that the same God who turned water into the best of wines could certainly form a diamond with a word in an instant; yet He continues to use the wonders of His creation to carry out its marvelous workings taking thousands of years to produce one beautiful, incredible stone. And He knows where the richest stores of the most stunning diamonds have yet to come to the surface.
 
He is also the creator of other precious stones like rubies and sapphires and emeralds. He has produced and knows where veins of gold lie that would make the California gold rush look like a monthly gathering of the local library club.
 
And yet this creator, this God of everything, chose to allow Himself to be crowned with a twisted ring of jagged thorns just before His crucifixion. This culminated a lifetime of humility and stark humanness in which the God of the universe voluntarily robed Himself.
 
In wearing this crown of thorns, He proved Himself to be just the kind of king we need. He is a king who is familiar and acquainted with suffering and pain.

“He was despised and rejected by men;
   a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
   he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
 Surely he has borne our griefs
   and carried our sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
   smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions;
   he was crushed for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace,
   and with his stripes we are healed.”
(Isaiah 53.3-5 ESV)

In wearing this crown of thorns, He proved that He is a king who has come to redeem us from the curse of sin, part of which carries this mandate:  “…cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread, till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Genesis 3.17-19). His wearing this crown of thorns proclaims His reversing this curse.

This harsh coronation ceremony was yet another confirmation of a lifetime of verification that the kingdom of God is nothing like the kingdoms of this world. His kingdom is the antithesis of everything for which the kingdoms to this world stand.

• A crown of thorns replaces a crown of gold and precious stones.
• A cross reveals a suffering savior king, not an aloof tyrant.
• The empty tomb represents a kingdom in which all who enter will never die, for their king is alive forever.
• His soon return is the hope of all who follow this servant king in His self-sacrificial lifestyle. 

Jesus said, “My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting…But my kingdom is not from the world” (John 18.36).

Yet we know that the day is coming soon when our King will be recognized by all as the true King of the universe. In the book of Revelation, we find the apostle John recording his visions of the heavenly realms. Here is one powerful picture he records for us:  “I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God” (Revelation 19.11-13 NIV).

He is crowned King of kings and Lord of lords.

Expectations are a big part of relationships, but if we have unrealistic expectations we will inevitably be disappointed. There have been times in my pursuit of intimacy with God that I have been disappointed because my expectations were wrong. When we hear people tell of close encounters they had with God, we shouldn’t try to frame our own experiences to match theirs. Below are five truths from scripture about intimacy with God taken from the book Radical Reliance: Living 24/7 With God At the Center written by Joe Stowell. I added the scripture after each one that has helped me understand that truth.

Five Truths about Intimacy with God

1. Our primary purpose in life is to embrace the transcendent God by faith and to worship Him in purity and service.

Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego understood this principle when King Nebuchadnezzar was about to throw them into the furnace for not bowing down to his image.

If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of blazing fire; and He will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But even if He does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we are not going to serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.  (Daniel 3:17 – 18)

2. God intervenes in dramatic ways only periodically and selectively for major purposes in His Kingdom and blessings of His people.

Paul asked God three times to remove a thorn in his flesh. God answered with,

And He said to me, my grace is sufficient for you for power is perfected in weakness. Most gladly, therefore I will rather boast about my weaknesses, that the power of Christ may dwell in me.  (II Corinthians 12:9)

3. God has already done more for me than I deserve.

4. God is probably doing a lot of things for me that I don’t even know about.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God to those who are called according to His purpose.  (Romans 8:28)

5. When God thinks of intimacy, He thinks of a heart relationship with us.

Intimacy is about a relationship not a gift exchange. So if it is intimacy we want we need to be more intrigued with the Giver than the gifts.

Every good thing bestowed and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation, or shifting shadow.  (James 1:17)

The Lord is good and right; he points sinners to the right way.  He shows those who are humble how to do right, and he teaches them his ways.  (Ps.25:8-9 NCV)

First we see that God is good and right.  “God is good, all the time” and He never does wrong.  Even when “bad” things happen to His people, He is still good.  That is His character.  So the basis of our knowledge of God is what He tells us of Himself- and He is good and right.  He also wants us to be right and good.  The passage says He points sinners in the right way, shows the humble how to do right and teaches them His ways.  God doesn’t ask right living without giving us the means and knowledge of what to do.  His Word, the Bible, clearly shows us how to live rightly and what His ways are.  Yet we don’t get that knowledge through pride or good behavior.  So often I’m tempted to think if I just try hard enough, I’ll be able to do what God wants.  I’ll be able to please God.  But that is my pride telling me I can do it.  And the Bible says here that the humble get shown how to do right.  So as we meekly follow Him and trust Him with our lives, He will teach us His ways and show us His path.  And as verse 10 says, His “ways are loving and true.”  We can count on Him, because He is good and right.

When are you tempted to think that God is NOT good and right?  What can you do to defeat that temptation?  How often do you try hard to do what God wants, but fail?  Allowing the Holy Spirit to live His life through you is the key.  See Galatians 5:16.