I've been reflecting and recharging for months now. Many things happened and I did some things that I won't really do. Perhaps that's part of growth, trying to get out of your comfort zone and being real with your feelings, just letting them flow instead of suppressing them and learning new things.
Oh, I'm kinda weird, why do I feel this way? Oh, why did I do that? Maybe I'm wrong.
I know I just have a few months left and it's time to work again and to bring all the life lessons in my quiet season. God shows up each day and made me realize He's so great. I still couldn't rationalize everything but I know in His time, I'll understand these things. He's not only a good father but also a great friend of mine.
I've been reading "Purpose Driven" by Ptr. Rick Warren this past few days and I am already in Chapter 12 which is developing a friendship with God. I'm glad because we can be honest with God as always, even in our disappointments, doubts, and fears. He never changes His love for us.
The first building block of a deeper friendship with God is complete honesty— about your faults and your feelings. God doesn’t expect you to be perfect, but he does insist on complete honesty. None of God’s friends in the Bible were perfect.
In the Bible, the friends of God were honest about their feelings, often complaining, second-guessing, accusing, and arguing with their Creator. God, however, didn’t seem to be bothered by this frankness; in fact, he encouraged it.
God allowed Abraham to question and challenge him over the destruction of the city of Sodom. Abraham pestered God over what it would take to spare the city, negotiating God down from fifty righteous people to only ten. God also listened patiently to David’s many accusations of unfairness, betrayal, and abandonment. God did not slay Jeremiah when he claimed that God had tricked him. Job was allowed to vent his bitterness during his ordeal, and in the end, God defended Job for being honest, and he rebuked Job’s friends for being inauthentic.
God doesn’t expect you to be perfect, but he does insist on complete honesty.
The Purpose-Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For?
God is not only a father but He can also be our great friend. We can always pour out our hearts to God even when we're in the midst of lamentations, sufferings, joy, wins, defeats, celebrations, rest, and in whatever situations. I admire David when he wrote Psalms. When you read the emotional confessions of David and others, realize this is how God wants you to worship him—holding back nothing of what you feel. You can pray like David: “I pour out my complaints before him and tell him all my troubles. For I am overwhelmed.”
We can always seek Him and find Him when we seek him with all our hearts, minds, and souls. We can be vulnerable to God even if it is about the smallest details about our lives and those simple queries that we have. He's still present even in our ordinary days and we can always converse with Him.
May you realize that God is also your great friend. But you can't be His friend if you didn't know that He sent His son Jesus to die for your sins. Jesus overcame death and rose again to fulfill His promise so that in Him we can have life, eternal life, and a life here with purpose and meaning. If you will ask forgiveness for your sins, accept Jesus Christ as your savior, and pursue Him with all your heart, you will have a new life in Him- a life with peace and meaning. You don't need to be perfect because Jesus meets us in our imperfections. Jesus loves us in our mess. Jesus knows you and He can meet you wherever you are. Trust Him and put your faith in Him because when God loves, He does. He will renew your heart again, a new life full of hopes even in the midst of your suffering.
For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already becasue they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.
John 3:16-18
When I realized that God is also my friend, I started to pour out everything to Him even those things that I thought were unnecessary because He wants to be involved in all aspects of our lives. He always listens. And oftentimes, I always plead to Him if it's not from Him just remove it from my heart and my mind so it won't bother me anymore. Have you ever prayed this prayer too?
When we remain and connect ourselves to Jesus, we can always find answers. Maybe it's not yet the right time but Jesus assures us that we're his friends and he chose us to bear fruit while we're living here.
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I jave called you friends , for everything that I learned from my Father I have made knows to you.
John 15:15
