My God, My Friend

     A man sat outside of his dwelling taking in the delicious view of the mountains, hills, and chuckling streams.  And as he squinted his eyes toward the horizon, he noted three travelers coming his way.  Being a courteous man, he immediately ran up the dusty path and entreated them to stay by and eat a little.  They accepted his invitation and rested themselves under a shady tree before setting out once again.  But before the travelers had left their generous host, they communed among themselves, and decided, Yes, we’ll tell him.  The Lord told Abraham that He was going to destroy Sodom because of its great wickedness.  But He didn’t just tell him and leave; He wanted to hear what Abraham thought about it first.  Why?  Because Abraham had become God’s friend.

     That is just one example of the closeness involved in a friendship with God.  Think of someone who is your friend that you look up to--a mentor, trusted adult, etc.  This kind of friend isn’t someone that is on your level, but they still want to talk to you and spend time with you.   And they can give you valuable advice and guidance.  Now multiply that times infinity, and that’s what a friendship with God is like.   This type of friendship is a friendship between one lower and one higher, and the one lower respects the one higher, and the one higher protects and guides the one that is lower.

     When this kind of a friendship is in place, obedience becomes joy--overflowing joy.  It won’t be a chore anymore to do what our heavenly Mentor, Counselor, and King tells us to do.  Obedience to God, then, will become as natural to us as the turning of a flower to the sun.  It’s a miracle, really, but a simple one.

     Just here is the perfect example of law and grace manifested in the life.  Law in obedience, and grace in the ability to speak personally to the Most High.  But often we fail to realize that this deep connection, that combination of law and grace, is all we can afford to have.

     What our spiritual life hungers for and pants after is a rich, deep prayer life--the kind of prayer life where we take time away from our busy day to commune with God when we need to be doing whatever, and the kind that makes prayer a reflex to anything that happens, bad or good.   And yet despite this longing, deep down and hidden in our hearts, we are so often neglectful and we make excuses.  I have no time... I don’t have anything to say... Why would He listen to me, anyways?... I have something better to do...  Ouch.

     “Our life is to be bound up with the life of Christ; we are to draw constantly from Him, partaking of Him, the living Bread that came down from heaven, drawing from a fountain ever fresh, ever giving forth its abundant treasures.  If we keep the Lord ever before us, allowing our hearts to go out in thanksgiving and praise to Him, we shall have a continual freshness in our religious life.  Our prayers will take the form of a conversation with God as we would talk with a friend.  He will speak His mysteries to us personally.  Often there will come to us a sweet joyful sense of the presence of Jesus.  Often our hearts will burn within us as He draws nigh to commune with us as He did with Enoch.  When this is in truth the experience of the Christian, there is seen in his life a simplicity, a humility, meekness, and lowliness of heart, that show to all with whom he associates that he has been with Jesus and learned of Him.” Christ’s Object Lessons, page 129.3

     He’s the Creator of the Universe, and He didn’t just use everything He could to redeem you, a speck of sand in the Sahara; He also wants a personal friendship with you closer than any other being in the universe can describe.  

     And that’s profound.

     Do you want it?

     -Lilienne Stafford