Chapter 15 Day 12 Build a Deep Friendship with God

Day 12 Build a Deep Friendship with God He makes friends with the godly. (Proverbs 3:32, NLT) Draw near to God, and God will draw near to you (James 4:8) You can choose how close you want to be with God. Like any friendship, your friendship with God is a constant development. Friendship does not happen automatically. It takes desire, time and effort.If you want to have a deeper and more intimate relationship with God, you must learn to share with Him honestly How you feel, trust in what He tells you to do, learn to care about what He cares about, and desire His friendship more than anything else.

I must choose to be honest with God The cornerstone of a deep friendship with God is complete honesty, including your mistakes and feelings.God doesn't require you to be perfect, but He insists on being completely honest.No friend of God in the Bible is perfect: if perfect people are worthy of making friends with God, we will never have a chance.Fortunately, by God's grace, Jesus is still "the friend of sinners". In the Bible, God’s friends can honestly express their feelings to Him, often complaining, doubting, accusing, and even arguing with their Creator; however, God never seems to mind such frankness, but rather Add encouragement.God allowed Abraham to question Him about the destruction of Sodom, and bargained with Him to reduce the number of righteous men who could save the city from fifty to ten.God also patiently listened to David's many accusations of injustice, treachery, and abandonment.God did not put Jeremiah to death for claiming that God had deceived him.God also allowed Job to vent his complaints and bitterness when he was going through the ordeal, and eventually God justified Job's honesty and accused Job's friends of hypocrisy.God told them, "My friend Job was not as honest with me as you were with me... Now, my friend Job will pray for you, and I will accept his prayer."

Another amazing example of genuine friendship is God's candid expression of his abhorrence of Israel's disobedience.He told Moses that he would keep his promise and give the promised land to the Israelites, but he didn't want to walk with them in the desert!God had had enough, and He let Moses know how He felt. Moses responded with equal bluntness as a "friend of God," "Look, you want me to lead this people, but you don't let me know who you're sending with me...if I'm in your presence Really special, let me be part of your plan... Don't forget, this is your people, your responsibility... If you don't want to go with us, then just stop there Come on! How do I know that you are with me and your people? Do you want to go with us or not?"...God said to Moses: "Okay, I will do as you say Because I know you well and you are a very special friend to me."

Does God allow us to be so forthright with it?Absolutely allowed!True friendship is based on an open and honest attitude. It may seem reckless, but it is sincere in God's eyes.God loves to hear the warm words of his friends, but finds no interest in the clichés.To be a friend of God, you must be faithful to God and share with Him what you really feel, not what you think you should feel or say. God doesn't require you to be perfect, but He insists on being perfect. You may need to admit that there have been times in your life when you felt cheated or disappointed and harbored anger and resentment toward God.Unless we are mature enough to understand that God uses whatever happens in our lives for our good, we tend to be overwhelmed by our appearance, background, unanswered prayers, past hurts, and things we want to change. to hate God.People tend to blame God for the harm others cause; this creates what William Backus calls "a hidden rift between you and God."

Resentment is our greatest obstacle to friendship with God.We think to ourselves, "Why should I be friends with God if He allows this to happen?" To resolve this, of course, we must understand that God always acts in your interest; even if it hurts. , and you don't understand either.Letting go of your resentment and expressing your feelings is the first step in healing. Just like so many people in the Bible did, tell God how you really feel. God teaches us frankness and honesty in the Psalms, a guide to worship, full of passions, madness, doubts, fears, resentments, and deep passions, mixed with thanksgiving, praise, and declarations of faith; every emotion possible recorded in it.When you see the emotional confessions of David and others, you know God wants you to worship Him without hiding your feelings.You can pray like David: "I confide before him, I declare all my troubles. For I am struck down."

Resentment is our greatest obstacle to friendship with God. It is encouraging to know that God's favorite friends like Moses, David, Abraham, and Job all had doubts at one time.But instead of masking their fears with godly clichés, they were candid and open about those feelings.Sometimes expressing doubts about God is the first step toward a closer relationship with God. I must choose to obey by faith Every time you trust God's wisdom and do what it says, even if you don't understand it, you deepen your friendship with God.We tend not to think of submission as a quality of friendship. We think of it as something between parents and children or bosses and subordinates, not friends.But Jesus made it clear that obedience is a condition of intimacy with God, saying, "If you obey my commands, you are my friends."

In the previous chapter, I explained that the word Jesus calls us "friends" can be compared to "friends of the king" at court.Even though these close companions were privileged, they were still subject to the king and his orders.We are friends with God, but not equal to him. He is our dear leader and we follow him. We obey God not out of duty, fear or compulsion, but because we love him and trust him to know what is best for us.We want to follow Jesus Christ because we are grateful for what He has done for us.The closer we follow Him, the deeper our friendship grows. Unbelievers often think that Christians obey God out of obligation, guilt, or fear of punishment, when in fact the opposite is true.Because we are forgiven and set free, we obey out of love, and our obedience brings us great joy!Jesus said, "As the Father loves me, I love you; and you shall always live in my love. If you keep my commands, you will always live in my love, just as I keep my father's commands and remain in His love. I tell you these things so that you may have My joy and your joy may overflow."

Notice that Jesus only expects us to be like what He did to God the Father. Jesus' relationship with the Father is an example of our friendship with Him. Jesus does everything the Father tells Him to do, all out of love.True friendship is active not passive.Jesus calls us to love, to help those in need, to share what we have, to live holy lives, to forgive others, and to lead others to Jesus.Love prompts us to obey immediately. We are constantly challenged to do "great things" for God, when in fact God is more pleased when we do small things for Him out of loving obedience.These things may not be noticed by ordinary people, but God will pay attention to them and regard them as worship to Him.

There may be a great opportunity in a person's life, but all kinds of small opportunities surround our daily life. Even through some simple actions, such as telling the truth, being kind to others, and encouraging others, these will please God .God values ​​these simple acts of obedience more than our prayers, praise, and offerings.The Bible says, "Do you think the Lord will be more pleased with your burnt offerings and offerings than with your obedience? Know that obedience is more precious than sacrifice. He wants you to obey His commands more than you would offer Him the fat of a ram." please him."

At the age of thirty, Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist and began His public ministry. God said from heaven: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." What did Jesus do in the previous thirty years? What could please God?The Bible has no explanation for the hidden thirty years, only Luke 2:51 has a clue: "He went down with them, returned to Nazareth, and obeyed them." Thirty years can be used as two words. Summary: "Submit"! ! I must choose to value what is precious to God Friends will care about what is important to each other. The more you are a good friend of God, the more you will care about what He cares about and enjoy yourself with Him.Paul is the perfect example, God's plan is his plan, God's love is his love; he said, "I am troubled because I care so much for you—God's love is kindled in me." So is David: "For Thy house my heart is burning with anxiety."

What is God's most important thing?It is the redemption of His people, He wants every one of His lost children to be found!That's why Jesus came to earth.The most precious thing in God's heart is the death of His beloved Son, and the next thing is when His children proclaim this good news to others.To be a friend of God, the prerequisite is to care about everyone around you that God cares about. A friend of God will lead others to know God. I must desire to be friends with God more than anything else The more you are a good friend of God, the happier you will be when He is happy The Psalms are full of such examples, where David desires to know God more than anything else: he uses words such as longing, yearning, longing, earnest.He pleaded with God, saying, "One thing I have asked of the Lord, and I will still seek: to dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold his beauty, and to inquire in his temple." He wrote in another psalm Says, "Your eternal love is more precious than life." Jacob wanted God to bless his life to such an extent that he wrestled with God all night, saying, "I will not let you go unless you bless me." The most legendary part of this story is that the Almighty God let Jacob win the wrestling!God will not be angry when we wrestle with Him, because wrestling brings us into personal contact with God and brings us closer to Him!At the same time, wrestling is also a passionate activity. When we have passion for God, He is happy. The apostle Paul was another man who earnestly sought the friendship of God. There was nothing better than this. It was the first thing in life, the focus of his life, the ultimate goal in life.This is why God was able to use Paul so greatly.The Amplified English Bible fully expresses Paul's passion: "My final purpose is that I can know him, so that I can know him more and more deeply and intimately, and experience, know and understand his essence more clearly and intensely. the great power of The truth is, it is up to you to choose whether or not to draw near to God.Having an intimacy with God is a choice you make, not an accident.You must seek with your heart.Do you really want this relationship above all else?How valuable is this to you?Is it worth giving up something else for it?Is it worth the effort to develop the habits and skills you need? You may have had a passion for God in the past, but have lost that desire.This is the problem with the Laodicean Christians, they have lost their first love.They did all the right things, but out of duty rather than love.Don't be surprised that God allows some pain in your life if you're just mechanically doing some spiritual action.Pain is the fuel of passion, and it empowers us to change, something we often lack.Lewis said, "Pain is God's megaphone." It's God's way of rousing us from our spiritual chaos.Your difficulties are not punishments, but the alarm bells of a loving God.He's not mad at you, he's crazy about you, and he'll do whatever it takes to bring you back to fellowship with him.In fact, there is an easier way to rekindle your passion for God, and that is to ask God for this loving relationship now, and keep asking until you get it.You can pray like this all day long: "Dear Jesus, above all else, I want to know You intimately!" God said to the captives in Babylon: "If you seek Me, you will find Me; if you Follow me wholeheartedly, and I promise you will find me." your most important relationship There is nothing else in this world and there is nothing more important than a relationship with God as a friend, a relationship that lasts for eternity.Paul told Timothy, "Some people have missed the most important thing in life—they don't know God!" Are you missing the most important thing in life?You can get started now.Remember that this is your choice, how close you want to be with God is up to you.