“Intimacy with the Almighty”, Charles Swindoll

Photo courtesy of Thomas Nelson.com

Chuck Swindoll wrote this short book during a period where he was on sabbatical to his pastoral responsibilities. It was only in that down time that he sensed his yearning for greater intimacy with the Lord. Sometimes it’s only when we slow down and be still in the Lord’s presence are we able to hear our heart’s cry.

The book is centred around 4 decisions that need to be made daily and the required discipline for enabling greater intimacy with the Lord:

1. To reorder one’s private world -> Simplicity
2. To be still -> Silence
3. To cultivate serenity -> Solitude
4. To trust the Lord completely -> Surrender

I liked this structure particularly the inclusion of simplicity. In this frequently manic world we live in it is very easy to become overwhelmed not just by physical things but our minds can be overtaken by a barrage of unrelenting communications.

This is an easy book to read, only taking an hour, but it’s important to allow the teachings and soundbites time to linger in our hearts so we can start to put the concepts into practice.

Highly recommended.