31 Days Toward Intimacy with God (31 Days Series) (Hardcover)

by Joni Eareckson Tada (Author) "Smoothed and flattened, the wrinkled sheet of wide-lined tablet paper lay in the center of my empty desk..." (more)
Key Phrases: Holy Spirit, Lord Jesus, Christ Jesus (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
As believers, we were made for intimacy with God. The Lord Jesus gave His life for us so that we might have intimacy with Him. God knows that the more we get to know Him, the more we will know of life—the life we were created to experience. By focusing our thoughts on Him, we will grasp more fully His goodness and be all the better for it. We’ll come to see how much we really do depend on Him for everything—from salvation, to strength for each new day, to the next breath we draw into our lungs.

To know God intimately,

trust in Him faithfully,

and depend on Him consistently.

You want this immediately. So you must seek Him passionately!

Journey now along the pathway following the sweet, enticing fragrance of heaven. But don’t expect a walk in the park. In every life there are times when the road narrows and the skies grow dark. Seasons of suffering are as certain as the glorious destination before you. Yet you are called to go, and the Source of your spirit’s restoration promises to never leave your side.

Daily inspiration from Joni Eareckson Tada gently guides your steps to a closer, more intimate walk with your Savior. And as you travel, new life—His life!—is freely yours as a gift.

Story Behind the Book

“In the thirty-seven years I’ve lived as a quadriplegic, I have been forced time and again into the arms of Jesus. Sometimes my paralysis has pushed me down the road to Calvary, like a sheepdog snapping at my heels. Sometimes suffering is like jackhammer, breaking apart my rocks of resistance and pride. Most often, my wheelchair has dumped me at the foot of the cross, and I have rested there by the overwhelming conviction that I have nowhere else to turn. But that’s okay. In fact, it’s a blessing. It’s all a bruising-of-a-blessing. Because near the cross, in the arms of Jesus, I have discovered deep, sweet, peaceable intimacy with the Savior. It’s an intimacy worth sharing!”

About the Author
Joni Eareckson Tada is the founder and president of Joni and Friends, an organization accelerating Christian outreach in the disability community that numbers 550 million people worldwide. She is an artist and the author of numerous bestselling books including the beautifully redesigned A Christmas Longing, Diamonds in the Dust, More Precious than Silver, the platinum award-winning Joni, Heaven: Your Real Home, and When God Weeps. Joni and her husband, Ken, live in Calabasas, California.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 176 pages
• Publisher: Multnomah Books (March 3, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1590520025
• ISBN-13: 978-1590520024
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #566,898 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tada is able to connect biblical truth with everyday life, April 2, 2005

By	FaithfulReader.com (New York, New York) - See all my reviews

Joni Eareckson Tada is a well-known advocate for the rights of the disabled and a well-loved writer on the spiritual life. Her latest book, 31 DAYS TOWARD INTIMACY WITH GOD, is a showcase for her ability to connect biblical truth with everyday life. She does so here in an easily accessible format that provides a short essay, a scripture passage, and a prayer for every day of the month. All of it is geared, as the title suggests, to promote a deeper connection with God.

In the introduction, Tada suggests that to be in a close relationship with Christ is to be familiar with suffering. That's not to say that one must go around pursuing pain and humiliation, but it is to say that the cross is a tangible focal point, even a rallying point, for our faith.

"Suffering has a way of taking life out of the abstract, out of the theoretical, making it painfully concrete.... When we suffer, we realize we are not handling theological ideas, we are rather being handled by a Person --- the warm and intimate Person of the Lord Jesus. At other times, when life is rosier, we may slide by with knowing about Him. With imitating Him and quoting Him and speaking of Him. But only in the fellowship of suffering will we know Jesus. We identify with Him at the point of His deepest humiliation. The cross, symbol of His greatest suffering, becomes our personal touch point with the Lord of the universe."

If anyone knows about suffering, it's Tada. She was headed to college when a diving accident left her paralyzed from the neck down in 1967. Over the years she has spoken candidly about the ongoing physical and emotional pain her injuries cause her. And it's precisely because of her affliction that she is in a unique place to speak with authority about the ability of suffering to draw one closer to the Lord.

In her daily essays Tada weaves together stories from her life and from Scripture to illustrate how God works through events --- sometimes good, more often bad given that we live in a fallen world --- to draw us closer to Him. She has a gentle, encouraging tone but her guidance isn't superficial. It's steeped in many years as a student of the Bible and the school of hard knocks.

Tada says God is painting a picture with our lives.

"There are aspects of your life and character --- good, quality things --- he wants others to notice. So without using blatant tricks or obvious gimmicks, God brings the cool, dark contrast of suffering into your life. That contrast, laid up against the golden character of Christ within you, will draw attention...to Him.

Light against darkness. Beauty against affliction. Joy against sorrow. A sweet, patient spirit against pain and disappointment --- major contrasts that have a way of attracting notice. Your life beings to snap with interest. People notice you out of the corner of their eye --- are drawn to you --- without really understanding why.

They are, in fact, seeing what the Master Artist wants them to observe: Christ in you, highlighted against an opposing force of dark suffering.

He draws you into intimacy with Himself, even in the most difficult, pressure-filled days of your life. Jesus allows you to know Him through the 'fellowship of sharing in his sufferings.'"

God is certainly painting just such a compelling picture with Joni Eareckson Tada's life, and in 31 DAYS TOWARD INTIMACY WITH GOD she provides the guidance to help you allow God to do the same in your life.

--- Reviewed by Lisa Ann Cockrel

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome!, May 13, 2008

By	Firecracker (Pensacola, FL) - See all my reviews

This is an easy read, daily devotional that is sure to warm your tired soul. What comfort it brought me during a difficult time when I felt so very far away from the Lord.

5.0 out of 5 stars Read and Learn, March 16, 2008

By	Michaela (Nürnberg, Germany) - See all my reviews

I always like the style in which J.E. Tada writes. You can always be assured that it is from a lifetime of experience, honest and insightful. A time to learn and grow.