Knowing God Intimately
“You make known to me the path of life; You will fill me with joy in Your presence, with eternal pleasures at Your right hand.” Psalm 16:11
You know how people say all these terrific self-love things, like “I’m my own best friend” and “I love me”? Nope. That wasn’t me for most of my life.
I never felt comfortable with myself until the last few years. I’d hoped it was something I’d grow out of, but by age thirty, I realized this was something deeper.
I’d see other women who seemed utterly comfortable and at peace with themselves. I’d look on in envy. Were they born that way? Was it something their parents taught them?
A few years ago, I figured out their secret—or at least how to achieve that self-comfort and peace. It was all about the soul.
I didn’t become a full Jesus-follower until I became an adult. Then, sometime in the last decade as my spiritual walk deepened, I began reading the Bible daily.
Somehow God’s words transform my heart, draw me closer to Him, help me understand Him better, hear Him more clearly, and focus on Him more intensely.
I realized an important truth: loving myself isn’t actually about me at all. It’s about loving the Lord.
Genesis 1:27 tells me God created human beings in His own image. He loves us completely, and the more I know and understand Him, the more I realize that I am part of Him, part of His beauty and love.
Knowing God intimately and fully was the answer to everything I’ve ever been looking for. it’s life-changing, perfect bliss.
Jessica Brodie is an award-winning journalist and a member of the Wholly Loved Ministries team. She’s also an author who currently serves as the editor of the South Carolina United Methodist Advocate, the oldest newspaper in Methodism. She is the author of More Like Jesus: A Devotional Journey (2018) and editor of Stories of Racial Awakening: Narratives on Changed Hearts and Lives of South Carolina United Methodists (2018), both from her newspaper’s Advocate Press. She also writes contemporary women’s fiction, represented by Bob Hostetler of The Steve Laube Agency. Her novel The Memory Garden won the American Christian Fiction Writers’ 2018 Genesis Contest. She has a faith blog at JessicaBrodie.com.
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Originally published Monday, 17 June 2024.
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