Becoming God's Friend: Understanding Your Growth from Servant to Friend

The need for constant interaction in friendship is an important concept to understand in our relationship with God. To find friendship with God we have to walk as far down the path with Him as we can. When our spirits turn aside or even pause in our walk with Him, we can grow no closer to Him. Our hesitancy puts distance between Him and us because

His journey out of the city was more than just obedience to God; it was agreement with Him.

You can go because God would go, and you have grown to be like Him. In that growth, you have seen the needs of impoverished people as He would see them. You can no more sit at home than Jesus could have stayed in Heaven. This change in you means facing new challenges. There are new fearful obstacles to be met and overcome. None of that matters. You

And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

God is trying to move us toward the ideal of giving. He does not want us to see the blessings in our lives as an end. We need to see them as a means. God gives to us for the sole reason so we can give to others. When we respond in harmony with that intention, not out of duty or obligation, but out of instinct then our souls have become like His and

Why you choose to follow God says as much about your perception of Him as anything I know.

Abraham lived before God and demonstrated the power of a man's faith. He showed God that a man's faith is something that can be trusted and that will not be spoiled if God draws near to bless it.

God has a plan for Abraham, but Abraham cannot see it. The limitation of his perception leads him to question the plan. He even concocts an alternative plan for God: "I don't have a child, let's just give it to Eliezer." God replies, "No, Abraham. That is not my plan. My plan is that your own son shall be your heir." So as a par

The principles for living life and being godly are in Scripture and that is what He wants out of our lives, "For this is the will of God, your sanctification" (1 Thessalonians 4:3). He has given us all the principles and values He deemed necessary to live godly lives.