Thank you for visiting my Blog to read today’s post about finding out what it takes to build true intimacy. Thousands of authors have pontificated over this topic for a price that could easily rid you of the twenty-dollar bill stashed in the secret hiding place of your wallet for “emergencies”.
The answer to the question is plain, simple, and it’s FREE. Transparency. Yep, that one word sums up how to build true intimacy. Psalm 32:2 points to interpersonal transparency as a source of happiness. We read, “Blessed (happy) is the man whose sin the LORD does not count against him and in whose spirit is no deceit.”
Secrets are a sign that something is wrong. When we need to hide a twenty, hide a relationship, hide a habit, hide anything, we should feel a check in our Spirit. Transparency with God (and others) leads us to confess our sin and ask for forgiveness, which works toward ridding us of the spirit of deceit. When the conscious is clean, and we are right with God and those around us, there is nothing to hide.
The truly generous part of this free answer is in the knowledge that we don’t have to do it by ourselves. Thank you, Father, that You have equipped us with a warning device in our hearts that alerts us when we need to confess a deed or word. Thank you, Father, for inviting us to be transparent with You and one another. In Jesus name Amen.
I encourage you to become passionate about transparency, and don’t allow the enemy to convince you that transparency equates to brutal honesty. 2 John 4–6 reads, “It has given me great joy to find some of your children walking in the truth, just as the Father commanded us. And now, dear lady, I am not writing you a new command but one we have had from the beginning. I ask that we love one another. And this is love: that we walk in obedience to his commands. As you have heard from the beginning, his command is that you walk in love.”
Try it. What do you have to lose, except the false you?
God bless,
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I am a follower of Jesus Christ. I am a wife to Ed Hamlin and we are two becoming one. I am the daughter of a courageous woman who continues to battle breast cancer with the sword of the Spirit and a sense of humor. I am blessed to be the mother of two adult-children who stir thankfulness in my heart every day. I am the proud grandmother of: Emeline Sophia Munn, Adrian Robert Bunn, and Isla Elizabeth Munn. I also have three bonus adult-children (we’re a blended family) and five little ones to love on: Madison, Alekzander, Jayden, Kalob, and Jordan — the grandchildren. I enjoy a rainy day at home in front of a roaring fire in the fireplace with my handsome man snuggled up next to me as we share a luscious dessert and watch Hitchcock movies back-to-back. (Yes, that’s a run-on sentence. Hehe.) Hugs to my in-laws: the Ranieri’s (Joe and Lydia), who model marriage so lovingly. I believe Marriage Takes Three…God, husband and wife. |
It’s funny how God works sometimes. As I read this, it occurs to me that this the place He is calling me to RIGHT NOW: a place of absolute transparency. The sticky wicket though, lies in the fact that it’s not about being transparent to other people necessarily, or even with God because He already knows. The bigger challenge is being transparent with myself and not getting caught up in denial about where I really am. Before I can change and/or grow, I have to know where I am. The Lord knew that Abraham would take his son to that mountain and do as God requested, but Abraham needed to know that he would do it. Sometimes it takes an act of heartbreaking obedience to locate ourselves. In that obeying process we come to know where our hearts are and whether or not we truly trust Him.