If we think God is a harsh judge, requiring service and duty and rule keeping, a wrathful fear-inducing punisher, relationally cold or distant, or that we can buy His love and favor, these traits will show up in the way we relate to people. If we are critical of people, suspicious, judging, accusing, and measuring/comparing behavior, we ourselves don’t know God because these are the traits of a tyrannical ruler, not God.
If we are closed-off, fake, superficial, not allowing people to get close, this is because we are this way with the Father. We have not brought our lives into His light. We are not walking in intimacy with Him.
There is an undeniable self-disclosure in our relationship with God, it’s our willingness to be in relationship with people, our treatment of people.
If we are honest and open with the Father, we will be honest and open with people. Our humility, vulnerability, and transparency before the Father is directly reflected in our humility, vulnerability, and transparency with people.
Intimacy with God produces His nature and character in us. He is our loving Father. He is joyful, peaceful, patient, kind, good, faithful, and gentle. God is lavishly generous, compassionate, willingly self-sacrificial, forgiving, and unceasingly graceful. He is always willing to engage relationally with us. God welcomes everyone, and shows extreme honor to us by making our heart His home–the God of heaven honors us by making our heart His home. He desperately desires relationship with us. If we are walking in ever-growing intimacy with Him, we will be growing more like Him. This will be seen by every person we come in contact with…
