Devotions from Kenneth Boa’s book, Conformed to His Image

God created us for intimate relationship with Him- to know, enjoy, and honor Him. Because God is a relational being, He wants fellowship with us. The better we know Him, the better we know ourselves. Isn’t it amazing that our God who created over 200,000,000,000 stars and knows them by name, wants to seek intimacy with us?  His love for us is causeless, measureless, and ceaseless. (Rom. 5:6-11). God’s love is spontaneous and unending and nothing we do can cause Him to love us less. A prayer of St. Richard of Chichester often prayed today  is,  “..That we may know Thee more clearly, love Thee more dearly, and follow Thee more nearly; for Thine own sake.” Loving Him completely involves our intellect, our emotions, and our will. The more we come to know Him the more we love Him and are then willing to trust and obey Him in the things He calls us to do. If we are to cultivate this kind of relationship we need to set aside time in silence and solitude, prayer, reading of scripture etc. The more we experience Him the more or hearts will respond in love and gratitude. May we realize that God is not the enemy of our joy but the source of our joy.  “Our great task in the spiritual life is to will to do His will, to love the things He loves, and to choose the things He sets before us for our good.”