Best Friends

Psalm 37:23 - The Lord directs the steps of the godly. He delights in every detail of their lives.

Jeremiah 29:11 - For I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord.

They are plans for good and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.

I believe; above all else - that God wants an honest and real relationship with His children (us). One where we feel safe with Him, trust Him, and lean on Him with the understanding that His love for us is greater than any other! A relationship where we can be excited with Him, and broken before Him. A relationship where we understand His intentions and nature. Where we connect on a heart to heart level of intimacy with Him. I'm fully convinced that God not only cares about the smallest detail of our lives, but He desires to be involved in them. Even the ones we see or feel as most insignificant. The ones we ourselves hardly see as valuable or relevant. I thoroughly believe that God's number one intention in creating humanity was to have relationship, and simply show us what real love is! Not earthly, human love. But true - divine love! Our Lord wants to be our true best friend!

The Bible is littered with verses regarding God's love and promises for His children. But we have such a difficult time grasping or grabbing hold of them. It is our perception of Him that creates boundaries and borders for a love that was never intended to have them. We often cannot trust Him enough to believe that such love for us exists. It is our belief systems; our skewed mindset of how we think He views us that causes the rift between His love realized by us. It is our human nature to base the depth and quality of "love" on conditions. It is a premise that no one can escape in a broken world. I fully believe that no human has ever fully loved unconditionally. Some may do so more than others. And some may understand the principle more than others. But only Jesus Himself has ever truly loved unconditionally - perfectly.

It is our nature to place performance behind the force that drives our earthly love. And this usually equates to "striving" through religious works and mindsets that (we think) earn us favor in God's eyes. Trying to do more in His eyes to feel worthy of His love when He is desperate for us to simply receive it. We have been taught so much about our sin and failure that naturally we feel as though Jesus work on the cross, and His offering so much for so little - is too good to be true. The whole idea of just accepting a love so deep, and a reward so great is incomprehensible to our finite minds. But the reality is, it's that simple!

God is interested in every detail of our lives!

He wants to be our closest and best friend!

We not only miss the point of God's greatest purpose in our lives, we miss the best part: His love and availability in our lives. Day by day, minute by minute, moment by moment. If you can grasp this one concept above all others, the entirety and direction of your life will forever change. No matter where you are with Him today, it. will. change! If we lay down our religion and phony thinking, and embrace Him as our loving Father - it will transform everythingabout the way we live and view life. Because - finally - we will walk alongside God the way He always intended us too.

How do we do that? Or what does that look like? To answer that we need look no further than His Word. The Bible is littered with stories of godly men and women who had incredible relationships with God. And their lives were just as real and difficult as ours (if not more). The two key principles I want to focus on in-particular are honesty and child like faith (or trust). Depending on your background, history, church, and other experiences; determine the wiring of your mind. You may pray to God a certain way, believe that a specific version of The Bible is the only "true" Word of God. You may feel God is too big to care about such small things in our (more or less) insignificant lives. You may think God is only concerned about our behavior, and how bad we sin and mess up. Thus you may feel that a "tit for tat" kind of relationship is how God operates.

Ultimately, I think we have lessened God to something as small as us. Or in some cases, ever smaller. Like He is either too Holy and perfect - too big - and too preoccupied running the universe and dealing with bigger issues than to care about little ole us. Think about your own level of reasoning as a human being. Your own compassion. Your own ability to make judgments and feel emotion. Moreover, think about your own ability to feel love and hurt. Now know that God created us in His image. The word image is referring to our soul and emotional being. Not just our physical appearance (as God is not a physically created being - so that would not make sense). So how much more does He care? We really need to look no further than Jesus Himself. Jesus settles any argument regarding God's love for us. He literally came to show the world one thing - He is God. And He is love! What's more, He proved it on the cross! But there are so many other things that He did that showed His compassion and desire to have intimate relationship with us. Jesus had no home, His life was fully committed to going from one place to another proclaiming one message; God's love for a lost world! He healed every sick and broken person that sought Him out! He never turned away or denied one! He had compassion for hurting people, was moved to tears on multiple occasions, and even brought back the dead for those who had suffered loss. If that's not enough, He forgave many who never asked for forgiveness. He suffered brutality and persecution for basically being too amazing! For loving so much! And when those who couldn't handle all the free love and freedom He brought this world, they sentenced Him to death! Even then, in the act of brutality, He showed His love and forgave the very ones killing Him.

Dear friends, all God wants is a true and honest relationship with Him. He is big enough to handle our being real with Him. We don't have to change our voice and conjure up some chant when we pray. We don't have to agonize and beat ourselves up over some mistake we made today. We don't have to be vague in our vision, dreams, hopes, or desires because we think we don't deserve them. Or that God almighty could never be concerned with such small non-sense. We devalue ourselves to the point where we create a rift and gap between God and His most desired creation - us! Talk to God like your best friend! Trust Him like He is your closest family member or friend (and then some, because He will never let you down!) Just be you! And be real! God can handle anything we bring to Him! What's more, He desires it! And as silly as it seems, He cares about even the littlest of things. Spend time with Him, talk to Him, laugh with Him. When you are shopping, when you are at work, when you just want to vent about this or that. Going to God shouldn't always be about some holy or reverent need. It shouldn't be to just ask Him for help, healing, or a need. We miss so much about our loving Father by treating Him as if He were some kind of foreign alien. Imagine a relationship with your closest friend and family member where you suddenly found out they had "Superman" like powers. How would that change your relationship with them? Would you speak to them differently? Would you change the way you act around them? Or would you accept them all the same?

The closest thing God could ever do to stripping away everything to cross over this very gap im talking about, was become one of us. Love all of us. Die for all of us. And retain enough of his power and deity so we could know it was Him.

Wherever you are with God today, I want to challenge you to let go of any line of thinking that causes you to see Jesus as anything less than your best friend. Anything less than The One who cares about every aspect of your life! To the greatest and largest issue, right down to what color socks you put on in the morning - and know He cares! God's love is not fickle. It's infinite. And trying to understand it is impossible - accepting it for what it is - is not!

Romans 8:38-39 - And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love.

Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,[a]neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.