That is the way it is with spending time with God. When we miss doing it, if we are accustomed to it, we know it.

Get to know God's story.

Spend time with God.

III. Seek to Please God.

That's what we would do next in a human relationship, isn't it? We would try to do something that would give the other person pleasure.

This person buys another flowers. This one brings candy. This one prepares a special meal. This one gets tickets to a play. This one arranges a moonlight cruise.

Courting.

And it doesn't stop when two people get married. It is an essential ingredient of intimacy throughout the relationship.

A few months ago, one of our friends arranged a special birthday celebration for her husband. She took him on a trip that was a series of surprises for him. They drove to a lovely bed-and-breakfast home in the desert. They had a special dinner. After an early breakfast the next morning, she took him on a little drive into the desert and drove up to a colorful hot-air balloon waiting to bear them aloft. They had a wonderful sail out over the coast, stopping enroute to pick lemons off a fruit tree.

The husband has not ceased talking about this fantastic trip.

You can understand that it has contributed to the intimacy he shares with his wife.

Now, what can you do to please God?

There are many things.

You can undertake a program of personal change and reform.

You can make a pilgrimage to some special place of faith.

You can make a significant donation to a church or charity.

You can establish a relationship with a needy person and help that person back to solid ground in his or her life.

You can offer your services to a church or a charitable agency.

There are countless things.

But, as in the case with the woman who arranged the balloon trip for her husband, the best gifts you can give God will be designed in your own imagination. You will think, "What can I give the Creator of the world who has shown His love to me in Jesus Christ?"

You may even try to think of a new thing each week, and make the devising and bestowal of some new gift the pattern of your life.

I promise you, it will carry you along the road to intimacy.

IV. Reflect on What Your Life is Becoming With God

Finally, when you have learned God's story and spent time with God and tried regularly to please God, I recommend that you pause occasionally to reflect on what your life is becoming with God -- on how being related to God is changing your existence -- and then surrender to the flow of this alteration.

We do this with any new discipline or influence in our lives. When we are undertaking an exercise program, we reassess our progress and adjust the strenuousness of the exercises. When we engage in a course of study, we pause to think about what we have learned and how that impinges upon everything else we know.

When we consider our relationship to God and what it is doing in our lives, we can only give thanks and receive inspiration to intensify the relationship.