We all want intimacy with another person - whether or not we admit it. And we're all afraid of being intimate - whether or not we admit it.
Sharing our private thoughts and feeling with another person exposes us to them. They could criticize us, tell others what they know about us, use their knowledge to control us or hurt us. The possible negatives seem immense.
Nevertheless, we seek intimacy. It validates our existence, gives us a sense of completion.
We want someone to love us more as they know more about us, but we are afraid that they will love us less.
Even though we try to hide the worst of ourselves, someone who is close to us will find plenty to criticize. We all mess up one way or another pretty routinely.
The problem is circular. We can't have intimacy without self-revelation, but self-revelation leaves us open to criticism and the destruction of intimacy.
Intimacy requires that we recognize our own failings and forgive the failings of others.
We're not likely to do either unless we feel secure in our own value. We need to be confident that we are loved just as we are and that we are forgiven for our failings.
To be free to be intimate with another person, we need to know that we are loved and forgiven.
There is only one who loves us so completely that nothing we have ever done or ever can do will change that love.
Only God knows everything about us, and God loves us completely. God's love can give us a basis for intimacy with other people.
God knows every detail about us; he knows every thought we think and emotion we experience; he knows all about our past and our present; and yet he loves us completely and unfailingly.
When we come to God, we can experience intimacy with Him. We can be known, loved, and forgiven.
Over time, God's love and acceptance can give us the security and gentleness we need to be intimate with those we love.
Read on . . .