Chapter 14 Becoming God's Best Friend on the Eleventh Day

Becoming God's Best Friend on the Eleventh Day We were enemies of God, but through the death of his Son, He made us his friends.Since you have become his friend, Are we not saved by the birth of Christ? (Romans 5:10, modern Chinese translation) God wants to be your best friend. You have multiple relationships with God as your Creator, Master, Judge, Redeemer, Father, Savior...and many more.But the most shocking thing is that an Almighty God desires to be your best friend! In the Garden of Eden, we see the ideal relationship between God and us, Adam and Eve enjoying an intimate friendship with God, without ritual, religion or dogma, just a simple love relationship between God and the people He created.There is no guilt or fear, so Adam and Eve delighted in God, and God delighted in them.

Originally we were created to be with God all the time, but when man sinned, this perfect relationship disappeared.In the Old Testament era, only a few people had such honors and deep friendship with God.Moses and Abraham were called "God's friends," David was called "a man after God's own heart," and Job, Enoch, and Noah all had close friendships with God.But in the Old Testament, most people fear God more than they regard God as a friend. However, Jesus changed this situation. When he paid the ransom price for our sins on the cross, the temple veil, which symbolized the separation between God and man, was torn from top to bottom, indicating that people could once again approach God directly.Priests in the Old Testament had to spend a lot of time preparing to meet God, but now we can get close to God anytime, anywhere.The Bible says, "All because of what the Lord Jesus Christ has done for us, we have become friends with God, and now we can joyfully enjoy a wonderful new relationship with God."

We can be God's friends because of God's grace and the sacrifice of Jesus. "All things are from God, who made us friends from enemies through Christ." The hymn says: "What a friend we have in Jesus" (What a friend we have in Jesus), in fact, God also invites us to be friends with the Trinity Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Jesus said: "From now on I will no longer call you servants, because the servant does not know what the master is doing. Instead, I call you friends: because I have told you everything I have heard from my Father." In the scriptures, "Friends The word does not refer to ordinary friends, but refers to close and reliable friendship.The word "friend" in the original text is the same word as the best man in the wedding and the close and reliable friend of the king.In the palace, the servants had to keep their distance from the king: but friends who were in the king's close and reliable circle could meet the king directly and listen to confidential affairs.

It may be hard for us to comprehend that God wants to be our intimate friend, but the Bible says, "He is the God who loves your relationship." God deeply wants us to know Him intimately.In fact, God planned the universe, directed history, and all the details of our lives so that we could be his friends.The Bible says, "Of one man he made nations, and scattered them all over the face of the earth, and appointed for them years and boundaries. He did this, that they might seek God, or be able to find him by groping." To know and love God is our highest honor: to be known and loved by us is God's greatest joy.God said, "But let him boast because he knows Me, because he knows Me...for I delight in these things."

It is hard for us to imagine how finite, sinful people can be friends with this omnipotent, invisible, flawless God?Master and servant, creation and created, and even the relationship between father and son are easier to understand and accept.But what does it mean for God to be our friend?By observing the lives of many of God's friends in the Bible, we can learn six secrets to being friends with God.In this chapter, we will study two secrets first, and the remaining four secrets will be discussed in the next chapter. Become God's Best Friend—by Talking Often You will never be able to develop an intimate relationship with God by going to church once a week, or even having a period of quiet time each day.Friendship with God must be based on sharing all your life experiences with God.

Of course, daily devotionals are important, but God wants far more than just a daily appointment: He wants to be involved in every activity, every conversation, every problem, and even every thought of your life.You can talk to Him all day long, talking about everything, telling Him what you do and what you think. "Pray without ceasing" means talking to God while you shop, drive your car, and go about your daily routine at work. People often misunderstand that "being with God" means being alone with Him.Of course, we must have some alone time with God as Jesus demonstrated to us, but that is only a small fraction of your waking hours.If you invite Him to be involved in everything you do, and you recognize His presence, then whatever you do, you are "spending time with God,"

A classic book on learning to talk to God constantly is Practicing the Presence of God, written by Brother Lawrence, a humble seventeenth-century French monastery A chef who can turn the mundane tasks of cooking and washing dishes into acts of praise and fellowship with God.He believes that the key to a friendship with God is not to change what you do, but to change the way you do it.From now on, turn the things you do for yourself, such as eating, bathing, working, resting, taking out the trash, etc., into God's doing. Today we often feel the need to “drop” our daily tasks to worship God because we have not learned to experience His presence all the time.Brother Lawrence found it so easy to worship God through the little things of daily life, without having to take time off work for a special spiritual retreat.This is exactly what God thinks is the ideal situation.In the Garden of Eden, worship was not a meeting for you to attend, but an ongoing attitude: Adam, Eve and God were in a constant fellowship.Since God is with you at all times, there is nowhere nearer to God than where you are right now.The Bible says, "He is in all, reigns over all, and enforces all things."

Another very helpful method of Brother Lawrence is to pray continuously throughout the day in short conversations rather than long and complicated prayers.To be able to focus without being distracted, he said, "I don't recommend that you pray with a lot of repetitive words." This 450-year-old advice is especially applicable in today's "attention-distracted" age. The Bible tells us to "pray all the time", is it possible?One way is to use "breath prayers" throughout the day, which many Christians have done throughout the ages.Choose a short sentence and repeat it to Jesus over and over in one breath, for example: "You are with me", "I accept your grace", "I rely on you", "I belong to you", "I To know you", "Help me to trust you"...etc.

You can also use short Bible verses, such as: "To live is Christ," "You will never forsake me," "You are my God," "Live for Christ," etc., and keep praying until the words are deep enough. Plant it in your heart.Just remember that your motive is to glorify God, not to control Him. Practicing the presence of God is something to learn and a habit you can build.Just as a musician needs to practice scales every day in order to play beautiful music easily, you also have to force yourself to think about God at different times every day.You must train your mind to think of God often.To start, there are many visual aids you can use around you to remind yourself. For example, you might post a little note that says, “God is with me at this very moment and is here to help me!” Ben Benedictine monks use an hourly bell to remind them to stop for "hourly prayer".You can also use an alarm watch or a mobile phone with a timer to remind yourself to do this.Sometimes we feel God's presence, and sometimes we don't.

If you're trying to use these methods to seek the experience of God's presence, you're doing it wrong.We praise God not to feel good, but to do what pleases Him.Your goal is not to seek feelings, but to be constantly aware of the fact that God is with us anytime, anywhere. This is a lifestyle of worship. Become God's Best Friend - Through Constant Meditation The second way to develop a fellowship with God is to meditate on His Word throughout the day.The Bible continually reminds us to meditate on who God is, what He has done, and what He has said. It is impossible to be a friend of God without knowing His Word; it is impossible to love God unless you know His Word; and it is impossible to know Him without knowing His Word.The Bible says that God "revealed Himself to Samuel by His word." God continues to use the same method today.

Although you cannot read the Bible all day long, you can meditate all day long, thinking over the verses you read, and memorizing them in your heart. Meditation is often misunderstood as a difficult and mystical ritual practiced by reclusive monks.In fact, meditation is simply focused thought, a skill anyone can learn and do anywhere. When you keep thinking about a certain problem, it is called worry; when you keep thinking about God's word, it is called meditation.If you know how to worry, you already know how to meditate!You just need to turn your attention from your problem to the Bible.The more you meditate on the Word of God, the less you will be anxious and anxious. God counted Job and David as His close friends, for they cherished His Word above all else, and pondered it day and night.Job confessed, "I value the words of His mouth more than the food I need." David said, "How I love your laws, and I think about them all day long." "They are in my thoughts all the time, and I Can't stop not thinking about them." Friends share secrets with each other; God will share secrets with you if you make it a habit to meditate on His Word every day.God told the secret to Abraham, Daniel, Paul, the apostles and other friends. When you read the Bible, listen to sermons, or listen to tapes, don't forget them after you leave. You should develop the habit of repeating God's truth in your heart.The more time you spend meditating on God's Word, the more you will understand the "mystery" of life that most people miss.The Bible says, "The LORD is friend to those who fear him, and has made known to them his covenant." In the next chapter, we will discuss the other four secrets of building a friendship with God, but please don’t put it off until tomorrow, start talking with God all the time today, and meditate on God’s word continuously.Prayer allows us to speak to God, and meditation allows God to speak to us; these two points are the basic points of being God's friend.