Ep 169 A Legacy of Our Response to God’s Welcome: 5 Hindrances to Intimacy with our Heavenly Father

God is continually inviting us to Himself and whether or not we realize it, we “make our excuses.”  We say, “no thanks” all the time—graciously or not—and each time we do, we go further from God rather than closer.

I refer to these “making excuses” as “hindrances to intimacy”.

 God may speak to you about some hindrance that is unique to you. You might want to pray—“ Lord, what is keeping me from being intimate with You?”

We all give “reasons that keep us from being intimate with God—there are many. Here are some:

• pride
• self
• relationships
• fear
• complacency

 Jesus said, “Except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.” (John 12:24)

That sounds harsh unless you know the Gardener.  The One who asks you to die to yourself is not only in control, but loves you intimately and there is no risk in that kind of dying.

How does it work that living for ourselves is a hindrance to intimacy?

Practically speaking—and we’ve all experienced it. The further we get from God—the less intimate we become—the easier it is to fake ourselves out so that we gradually come to believe that living for self is really best for ourselves.

God needs to do some great intervention to wake us up out of our delusion—the real truth is clouded by temporary gratification of short term desires.

I'd love to hear if any of these five resonate with you or if you have one to add to the list? Please add in comments on blog: WelcomeHeart.com

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