12 Developing Your Friendship With God

 

 

 

PURPOSE # 1

 

 

You Were Planned For God's Pleasure

 

 

 For God has planed them like strong

and graceful oaks for his own glory.

Isaiah 61:3

 

 

12 Developing Your Friendship with God

 

 

He offers his friendship to the godly.

Proverbs 3:32

 

Draw close to God, and God

will draw close to you.

James 4:8

 

You are as close to God as you choose to be.

If you want a deeper, more intimate connection with God

you must learn to honestly share your feelings with him,

trust him when he asks you to do something,

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 first building block of a deeper friendship with God is

complete honest—about your faults and your feelings.

God doesn't expect you to be perfect,

but he does insist on complete honesty.

Fortunately, because of God's grace,

Jesus is still the "friend of sinners."

Matthew 11:19

 

"You haven't been honest

either with me or about me—

not the way my friend Job has...

My friend Job will now pray for you

and I will accept his prayer."

Job 42:7b

 

In one startling example of frank friendship,

Exodus 33:1-17

God honestly expressed his total disgust with Israel's disobedience.

Moses, speaking as a "friend" of God,

responded with equal candor:

"'Look, you tell me to lead this people

but you don't let me know whom you're going to send with me...

If I'm so special to you, let me in on your plans...

Don't forget, this is YOUR people, your responsibility...

 

If your presence doesn't take the lead here,

call this trip off right now!

How else will I know that you're with me in this,

with me and your pelple?

Are you traveling with us or not?...'

God said to Moses,

'All right. Just as you say;

this also I will do,

for I know you well

and you are special to me.'"

Exodus 33:12-17

 

Can God handle that kind of frank, intense honesty from you?

Absolutely!

Genuine friendship is built on disclosure.

What may appear as audacity God views as authenticity.

God listens to the passionate words of his friends;

he is bored with predictable, pious clichés.

It is likely that you need to confess some hidden anger and resentment at God

for certain areas of your life where you have felt cheated or disappointed.

 

People often blame God for hurts caused by others.

This creates what William Backus calls

"your hidden rift with God."

Bitterness is the greatest barrier to friendship with God:

Why would I want to be God's friend if he allowed this?

But releasing your resentment and revealing your feeling is

the first step to healing.

As so many people in the Bible did,

tell God exactly how you feel.

Consider Job (Job 7:17-21),

Asaph (Psalm 83:13),

Jeremiah (Jeremiah 20:7),

Naomi (Ruth 1:20)

 

To instruct us in candid honest,

God gave us the book of Psalms—a worship manual,

full of ranting, raving, doubts, fears, resentments,

and deep passions combined with thanksgiving,

praise, and statements of faith.

 

You can pray like David:

"I pour out my complaints before him

and tell him all my troubles.

For I am overwhelmed."

Psalm 142:2-3a

Expressing doubt is sometimes the first step

toward the next level of intimacy with God.

 

I must choose to obey God in faith.

"You are my friends

 if you do what I command."

John 15:14

We obey God, not out of duty or fear or compulsion,

but because we love him and trust that he knows what is best for us.

We want to follow Christ out of gratitude for all he has done for us,

and the closer we follow him, the deeper our friendship becomes.

 

"I have loved you even

as the Father has loved me.

Remain in my love.

When you obey me,

you remain in my love,

just as I obey my Father

and remain in his love.

I have told you this

so that you will be filled with my joy.

Yes, your joy will overflow!"

John 15:9-11

 

True friendship isn't passive; it acts.

When Jesus asks us to love others, help the needy,

share our resources, keep our lives clean,

offer forgiveness, and bring others to him,

love motivates us to obey immediately.

 

"What pleases the LORD more:

burnt offerings and sacrifies

or obedience to his voice?

It is better to obey than to sacrifice."

1 Samuel 15:22

"This is my beloved Son,

and I am fully pleased with him."

Matthew 3:17

What had Jesus been doing for thirty years

that gave God so much pleasure?

"He went back to Nazareth with them,

and lived obediently with them."

Luke 2:51

Thirty years of pleasing God were

summed up in two words: "lived obediently"!

 

I must choose to value what God values.

This is what friends do—

they care about what is important to the other person.

The more you become God's friend,

the more you will care about the things he cares about,

grieve over the things he grieves over,

and rejoice over the things that bring pleasure to him.

 

Paul is the best example of this.

God's agenda was his agenda,

and God's passion was his:

"The thing that has me so upset is

that I care about you so much—

this is the passion of God burning inside me."

2 Corinthians 11:2

David felt the same way:

"Passion for your house burns within me,

so those who insult you are also insulting me."

Psalm 69:9

 

What does God care about most?

The redemption of his people.

He wants all his lost children found!

That's the whole reason Jesus came to earth.

To be a friend of God,

you must care about all the people around you

whom God cares about.

Friends of God tell their friends about God.

 

I must desire friendship with God more than anything else.

The Psalms are filled with examples of this desire.

David passionately desired to know God above all else;

he used words like longing, yearning, thirsting, hungering.

He craved God.

"The thing I seek most of all is

the privilege of meditating in this Temple,

living in his presence everyday of my life,

delighting in his incomparable perfections and glory."

Psalm 27:4

"Your love means more than life to me."

Psalm 63:3

 

Jacob's passion for God's blessing on his life was so intense

that he wrestled in the dirt all night with God, saying,

"I will not let you go

unless you bless me."

Genesis 32:26

 

Paul was another man passionate for friendship with God.

Nothing mattered more; it was the first priority,

totoal focus, and ultimate goal of his life.

"My determined purpose is that I may know Him—

that I may progressively become more deeply

and intimately acquainted with Him,

perceiving and recognizing and understanding

the wonders of His Person more strongly and more clearly."

Philippians 3:10

 

The truth is—you are as close to God as you choose to be.

Intimate friendship with God is a choice, not an accident.

Pain is the fuel of passion—it energizes us with an intensity

to change that we don't normally possess.

C. S. Lewis said,

"Pain is God's megaphone."

It is God's way of arousing us from spiritual lethargy.

"When you get serious about finding me

and want it more than anything else,

I'll make sure you won't be disappointed."

Jeremiah 29:13

 

 

Your Most Important Relationship

 

 

There is nothing—absolutely nothing—more important

than developing a frienship with God.

It's a relationship that will last forever.

Paul told Timothy,

"Some of these people have missed

 the most important thing in life—

they don't know God."

1 Timothy 6:21a

Remember, it's your choice.

You are as close to God as you choose to be.

 

 

 

DAY TWELVE

Thinking About My Purpose

 

Point to Ponder: I'm as close to God as I choose to be.

 

Verse to Remember: "Draw close to God,

and God will draw close to you."

James 4:8a

 

Question to Consider; What practical choices will I make today

in order to grow closer to God?

 

 

p 92~99

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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